Stephan: America is a very sick society, made all the sicker by the fact that we don't seem to be able to tell ourselves the truth about ourselves. Start with the QAnon world, then add the anti-vaxxers, the climate change deniers, the White supremacists, then the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and, as this article describes, the Incels. And yes, I know, the list could be longer and that there is a lot of overlap amongst these groups. But the point I am making is that about a third of the American public have some kind of mental dysfunction. How do we fix that if we can't talk about it?
Jake Davison, suspected of killing multiple people in Plymouth, was vocal about his belief in Incel ideology. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd /Alamy
In trying to understand what prompted a man in Plymouth, England to commit the worst mass shooting in the UK for over a decade, attention has turned to his apparent links with the incel community – an online subculture of people who describe themselves as “involuntary celibates”.
Jake Davison allegedly shot his mother before a shooting spree which ended when he turned the gun on himself. His youngest victim was three years old. In the lead-up to the attacks, he compared himself to incels in YouTube videos and contributed to their forums.
He uploaded videos in which he fixated on his virginity and, in a direct reference to incel ideology, Davison’s described himself as “blackpilled“. This means that he believed himself too old, at 22, to find love.
Incels refuse to accept responsibility for their circumstances, instead believing their inability to attract women makes them victims of oppression. Like all groups under the umbrella of online misogyny known as the “manosphere”, they subscribe […]
Karin Brulliard and Joshua Partlow , National Health and Science Reporter | Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: If you live in one of the eight states that depend on the Colorado River for water, or hydroelectric power, your life is going to change. The rest of us are going to experience this water problem in the form of higher food prices. Our world is changing because of our bad behavior, whether we want to admit this or not.
People take pictures of Lake Mead near Hoover Dam on Aug. 13. The “bathtub ring” of light minerals shows the high water mark of the reservoir, which has fallen to record lows. Credit: John Locher/AP
BOULDER, COLORADO — Low water in the Colorado River’s largest reservoir triggered the first-ever federal declaration of a shortage on Monday, a bleak marker of the effects of climate change in the drought-stricken American West and the imperiled future of a critical water source for 40 million people in seven states.
Water in Lake Mead, the mammoth reservoir created by the Hoover Dam that supplies the lower Colorado basin, is projected to be 1,065.85 feet above sea level on Jan. 1, nearly 10 feet below a threshold that requires Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to reduce their consumption in 2022. On Monday, it was just under 1,068 feet, or about 35 percent full, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the water that states and Mexico have rights to use.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change in the Colorado River basin through […]
Stephan: As seems to be the norm today, there is a massive amount of disinformation concerning the relative costs of petroleum compared with electric vehicles. Quite predictably conservative media think petroleum vehicles are cheaper. As predictable as usual, it is a lie, and deliberate disinformation. Here is the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory report, which is fact-based.
Credit: electrek
A new study from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory offers the most comprehensive results yet of the costs of owning and operating different types of vehicles and how costs vary by powertrain.
The study is titled “Comprehensive Total Cost of Ownership Quantification for Vehicles with Different Size Classes and Powertrains.”
Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories collaborated on the study.
Factors considered
The researchers considered the following in order to calculate the total cost of ownership:
Vehicle purchase cost
Depreciation
Financing and fuel costs
Costs related to insurance (new)
Maintenance and repair (new)
Taxes and fees (new)
Mack electric garbage truck
The report covers the following vehicles:
Light-duty passenger vehicles: compact and midsize sedans, small and large sport utility vehicles, and pickup trucks
Medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles: semi-tractors; medium-duty vans and pickups; transit buses; box, utility aerial, and dump trucks; garbage trucks.
Stephan: I find Laura Ingraham a particularly loathsome "Karen." It isn't just that she lies constantly, and has a smug sense of entitlement. For me what makes my skin crawl when I watch her is her nastiness, and her utter contempt for the poor. I just wish something could happen so that she loses all her money, and has to live in the world her nastiness so wants for the poor.
Laura Ingraham, a leading MAGAT karen
Republicans have a long history of claiming that unemployment benefits are too generous in the United States — a claim they make even during painful economic downturns. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham made that claim this week on her show, “The Ingraham Angle,” recommending “hunger” as a way to encourage America’s unemployed to find jobs.
The 58-year-old Ingraham wasn’t shy about bashing the poor and the unemployed during the Great Recession, and this week, she claimed that the unemployed are having it much too easy during the pandemic recession.
“What if we just cut off the unemployment? I mean, hunger is a pretty powerful thing,” Ingraham told her guest Jon Taffer, host of the reality show “Bar Rescue.”
Ingraham went on to say, “I’m talking about people who can work and refuse to work. But the government is literally putting anvils, in many ways, on people’s shoulders — either through the mandates, regulations, now through free money.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. had an unemployment rate of 5.4% […]
Stephan: Here is today's Republican Scum Award; it goes to Marjorie Tayor Greene. What I find amazing is that no one can have any doubt about who and what Taylor Greene is. And yet the MAGAT Party seems to have no problem continuing to include her, and a dozen other similar cretins in their ranks. Even worse the people of Georgia liked her so much they voted for her. I'm sorry you cannot maintain a functioning democracy when the people vote such monsters into public office to represent them.
Steven Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene Credit: Real America’s Voice/screen grab
“I have my team right now working on articles of impeachment,” Greene told Real America’s Voice host Steve Bannon on Sunday. “Because I’m so disgusted with Joe Biden. You know I’ve already filed one set of articles of impeachment. But his failure as a president is unspeakable.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reacted to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan over the weekend by threatening to impeach President Joe Biden and by calling for Taliban-style gun rights in the United States.
“President Trump right now is more presidential and he’s not even in the White House than Joe Biden can ever be or stand up to in the past seven months,” she opined.
Greene also defended Americans who own assault-style rifles by pointing to the Taliban.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if [the Biden administration] are paying the Taliban,” Greene said. “After all, they are paying them with weapons, vehicles, Blackhawk helicopters because the Afghan army is handing them over as fast as possible.”
She added: “Anytime any Democrat ever speaks to […]
