Old Crank
Old Crank's JournalMAde me laugh
I'm sure you have heard about people taking pictures from the tripod holes at famous locations.
This cartoon fits right in....
Ignore. Can't get this to work or delete on my Kindle
Alabama is the only state with exposed male genitalia.
content://com.amazon.cloud9.FileProvider/images/screenshot/1708860998445-60182586.jpg
So here is an IVF question.
Some people, I included, have made jokes about tax deductions and voting based on embryos.
Since the Alabama Supreme Ayatollahs have decreed that embryos are in fact children what is their age? If life begins at conception isn't that the start of the aging clock?. Or perhaps 9 months from the formation of the embryo?
So can we kick 18 year old embryos out of their 'homes'? What happens when an 18 year old embryo is implanted and born? No more child tax deduction since they are adults???? Can the newborns vote? There are many questions here along those lines.
Signs of spring in Munich
A couple of reliable reminders that spring is coming to Munich, finally. Although this seems a bit early since the first time I was here , March, 40+ years ago, there was snow on the ground. That could still happen.
The gelateria was open, nice balmy 13 C, 55 F, and sunny.
The crocusses have stated poping up. Color at last.
When does the Alabama legislature
put forward an emergency bill to stop any transporting of the frozen embryos to a state where they could be destroyed?
Want to bet if it would pass and get signed?
The results of this study will surprise you
Well, no, not regulars to this forum anyway...
Who supports the Great Replacement theory... The GOP has manage to push this garbage into the mainstream of Republican thought.
https://www.prri.org/spotlight/replacement-theory-is-not-a-fringe-theory/?te=1&nl=paul-krugman&emc=edit_pk_20240220
QUOTE:
On May 14, 2022, a white supremacist terrorist shot 13 people, killing 10, in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, a location specifically chosen because of its large share of Black customers. The killer claimed that he was motivated by a right-wing conspiracy belief known as “replacement theory.” This ideology—which claims that white Christian Americans are under threat by Black and other people of color, non-European immigrants, and non-Christians—has a long history in various expressions of white supremacy throughout American history.
While these ideas have circulated among fringe groups in the past, PRRI data from August 2021 finds that belief in replacement theory is no longer fringe among a range of conservative subgroups. Americans who most trust conservative media outlets like One America News Network or Newsmax (80%) or Fox News (67%) are the most likely subgroups to agree with the statement that, “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” Additionally, 65% of QAnon believers and 60% of Republicans agree with the replacement theory statement, compared to just one in ten Democrats (11%) and one in four independents (26%). Among religious groups, half (50%) of white evangelical Protestants agree with these replacement fears.
Additionally, support for Christian nationalism is strongly correlated with a belief in replacement theory. Among Americans who agree that, “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world,” a majority (55%) also agree with replacement theory rhetoric (55%).
Found in the latest Paul Krugman news letter
It is called believing is seeing and goes over the way people seem to think about the economy when it is doing quite well.
He states all these reports of how people view the economy need to be with the results of people from both parties separated some of the time. At the end of his news letter was this link to this Brookings article about reported economic news getting worse.
When economic news gets worse compared to the way people feel you have a problem. Currently the reporting on the major economic issues are more negative than one would expect from the actual numbers. It does get a bit technical.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-are-americans-so-displeased-with-the-economy/?te=1&nl=paul-krugman&emc=edit_pk_20240220
Quote:
The seeming disconnect between consumer sentiment and the state of the macroeconomy has been a defining characteristic of the post-COVID economy. By most widely accepted measures, the state of the macroeconomy is historically robust: The topline unemployment rate has remained below 4% for the past two years, economic growth has been steady and recovered pandemic-era losses, and inflation has retreated to historical norms.
This apparent strength notwithstanding, various measures of household and consumer sentiment suggest a persistent dissatisfaction with the state of the economy. Less than one-quarter of registered voters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal in August 2023 answered that the economy was headed in the right direction. The Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment is roughly in-line with levels reported during the heart of the Great Recession in 2009, while the share of respondents in a Pew poll with a positive view of the economy was roughly halved between 2016 and today.
In sum, the discrepancy between the macroeconomy and household sentiment has given rise to several competing theories to explain the apparent disconnect. Our simple econometric model adds to evidence that biased sources of information play a role, and suggests that economic news has become systemically more negative beginning in 2018, with the negative bias growing over the past three years. To be clear, this analysis shows that the conditional tone of news is becoming more negative over time, but requires assumptions about how this increased negativity affects sentiment—including in particular the role of systematic bias in driving inaccurate perceptions about U.S. economic performance. While this new relationship may not explain the entire sentiment puzzle, it presents novel explanations for why consumer sentiment appears to be divorced from the macroeconomy and why survey respondents inaccurately describe the U.S. economy to be in a recession.
Trumps shoe lines
I here he is selling three styles.
1. Run from justice
2. Run from debts
3. Run from responsibility
Trump fined $355, million
This will sting.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/trump-fraud-trial/?id=103642561
Profile Information
Name: RalphGender: Male
Current location: München, DE
Member since: Tue Nov 14, 2017, 07:17 AM
Number of posts: 3,570