If there is one thing that people should know does not work, it is prayer. Religious people pray for things all the time and they almost never get what they ask for. Even members of Congress hold prayer sessions to drive Satan out of power in the Capitol, though the best way to have that prayer answered would be if they just left the building instead.
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Glenn Beck has been one of the wildest right wing media personalities, advancing all manner of bizarre theories in his time. But for some reason, he took an intense dislike to Donald Trump and has been harshly criticizing him. Samantha Bee decided to see if this shared distaste could form the basis of a more positive relationship and paid him a visit to see what they might have in common.
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According to this report in Bloomberg News, solar-energy is now becoming the cheapest form of new energy.
A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale, and notably, new solar projects in emerging markets are costing less to build than wind projects, according to fresh data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
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The phony ‘War on Christmas’ has been one of the most ridiculous frenzies that grip right-wing Christians and politicians and media each year around this time. Donald Trump predictably pandered to this sentiment by ridiculously promising that when he is president people will say “Merry Christmas” again. But what are they going to do about this attack on Christmas by rabbis in Israel who are concerned by the rise in popularity of Christmas as a secular holiday in that country?
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As has been obvious to any sentient being, Israeli has been on a steady path of annexing land in the Occupied Territories, using one flimsy excuse after another, even though those settlements and the walls that have been built that snake through Palestinian territory have been ruled illegal under international law. The US has been providing cover to Israel by vetoing all UN resolutions that seek to even mildly curtail these practices that have created an apartheid-like state in which Palestinians are subjected to degrading treatment and forced evacuations from their homes and other properties.
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Via David Pescovitz I came across this short film from 1991 by Berkeley Breathed.
The infrastructure in the US is in sad shape and requires massive expenditure to upgrade it. The Obama administration, like pretty much everyone else, knew that and tried to push for such spending but the Republican majority in Congress thwarted it at every step for three reasons. One is that they had made it their policy to oppose Obama on anything that did not benefit the oligarchy. The second was to deny Obama the opportunity to point to any kind of success anywhere. And the third was because such spending would stimulate the economy and create jobs and make people think the economy was improving.
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One of the signs that even the most superficial trappings of democracy are being undermined is when the rules of operation are changed willy-nilly to suit the interests of the ruling party. I have seen this play out in Sri Lanka that when one party gains overwhelming control, they do not use it to just push for the policies they favor (which is what elections are about) but use it to rig the system in their favor to prevent any reversal of power.
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One strong stereotype about the African-American community is that they are one of the most religious ethnic groups. There is good reason for this. Slave owners, like colonial rulers, used Christianity as a means of control, deflecting the hopes of the oppressed people to a wonderful afterlife to distract them from their present state of exploitation. During the harsh period of slavery, many slaves placed their hope in some kind of miraculous salvation, either in this life or at least in the afterlife and there is no question that this enabled them to endure horrific conditions. So religion became both a means of imposing oppression and also of surviving it.
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