Dress codes make some sense, when some sort of a uniform is needed, as in the military or police. But the necktie is an ancient bit of nonsense, it was originally a piece of military uniform hundreds of years ago. and if I had a choice I would vote to put personal clothing choice under the human rights banner. You get to wear a suit and tie if you want, and I get to wear something, else.

Harvard only accepts around 6% of the highly qualified people who apply, it is as elitist as it gets.
Education in a meritocracy tells those who are not at the top of the scale that they are not full members of the American family and so don't deserve a good education that can get them a get living.

Well, it is the Republican Party way, to take from the rich and utilize hate against minority groups using the Southern Strategy. Worked for Reagan, for the Bush Family, and above all, it worked for Trump. To ever win DeSantis has to keep Trump's most rabid voters if he goes to jail and somehow is stopped. Will get a lot more ugly, as the coming election of 2024 threatens to beat the election of 1860 as being the worst in American democracy.

I would have been surprised if it were otherwise.
The Republican Party has only two planks in its platform, really. The first is to take from the poor and give to the rich, and the second is to embrace the Southern Strategy of racist division and ginning up racial animus. The second is the reason they win the Electoral College even thought they pretty constantly lost the popular vote. And that is how Trump stole the Republican Party from them, one hateful action and comment at a time.

One wonders if Putin and Musk will fairly soon cooperate in a business venture, one that includes his moving to Russia and running their space program. Russian money is clearly behind Trump's reelection attempt. Musk screwed up Twitter for Trump, and I suppose Putin. Putin also has been saying adoring things about Trump as well.

If I ever start behaving like that I hope someone gets me to see someone, cause treating that large bear like it was a recalcitrant child was insane. Standing two feet away in a narrow corridor with it, pretty much a definition of out of touch.

Evil in America. I first encountered it around the tobacco lords, those evil men and women who championed their product even though they knew it would kill millions of Americans.
And now, with global warming, the Tobacco lords have competition for most evil of all, the fossil fuel industry and their Congressional employees, like Manchin.

Oligarchs the world over unite!
No doubt when he and Vivek Ramaswamy and the other American oligarchs get to carve up the country, just as was done in Russia, things will be much better...for them.

Well, for me, there was the moment he said that global warming was a hoax. Told me everything I needed to know about him, he is willing to compromise his intelligence and truth telling to suck up to the most ignorant of the Trump gang.

In a dark sense, one has to admire the grifting talents of the Trump family. They are all in when it comes to pressuring governments to give them wealth (funds) or else bad things can happen. Remember Trump's call to Ukraine asking for dirt on Hunter Biden before the US would send help?

Imagine if wars of aggression were illegal, and if a country indulges in one that country loses its vote in the UN and its leaders are brought to The Hague for trial. Either we outlaw war, in this time of nuclear posturing, or we, sooner or later, watch as the mushroom clouds rise over major cities.

The first time they tried to break our democracy, it was a great surprise, at least to me, as I watched in real time as a mob of violent seditionists assaulted the police and invaded the Capitol Building, all to stop the counting of votes.
If, however, there is a next time, say if Trump runs as the Republican Party candidate and loses again, I hope his mob will be taken more seriously. And if Trump wins the White House, I expect the 60's rebellions and marches to escalate, but in the spirit of MLK Jr., I hope they are peaceful.
Yes, there is maybe a 40% chance that fascism will return to the White House.

Trump is about taking from the poor and giving to the rich. President Biden has been for the poor and powerless getting a bit more of the economic pie ever since he took the Presidency. It is why I will be glad to vote for him again.

By then global warming will have increased the suffering all around the globe, including of course, Texas. Those without AC will be dying sooner than those with AC, and most of the lack of leadership on the issue comes from the sold out souls of the Republican Party. Al Gore was right.
Also by then, the Republican Party will have finally stopped pretending and started using speeches and symbols of the authoritarian party of America.

Thank goodness for NATO. That is how a lot of all that is boiling down for me, American has strong allies and Putin has done a lot to strengthen NATO. No doubt he will be continue that trend until he is deposed.

One wonders, going forward, just who will hold government and its legal arm, the police, to accounts, when the last of the newspapers go under. There are very few reporters these days on the investigative beat.

Equality for religion would mean taxing the property of the Catholic Church, and by the way, making their paid employees, Pope as well as priests, register under FARA, foreign agents registration act, since the Vatican is indeed a foreign nation.

And now he leads a fraudulent political party, pretending to championing democracy.

The real reason Trump was able to steal the Republican Party and use it for his own purposes is that the Republican Party had slowly turned against democracy itself, they were in it for the inequalities that let the rich rig the system, pretty much all systems.
And Trump was just far, far better at the greed and the hate game than Jeb Bush or now, DeSantis.

Four major trials in four different jurisdictions...it is a major expense for the court systems, so if he loses, I would expect court costs to be massive. So much major work needs to be done by our government on things like global warming and educating kids and keeping up the military readiness stature of our military branches, it feels like a terrible waste to have him go on and on breaking law after law.

See, when one calls a nation a banana republic, where a ruling family runs the show, courts and all, that is a bad thing. Somehow DeSantis seems to see converting Florida to an authentic banana republic as a good thing. Plutocracy and oligarchy, not what a democratic society is composed of.

And there is a significant chance that, as things stand, Trump will be within 100,000 votes to win the Electoral College. This county was always nuts, he is just giving it the option to vote fascist.

CTE for profit makes a lot of money for a lot of people. I have to wonder what would happen to some schools, like Stanford, if they dropped all their participating in football. My guess is it would be a good thing for their students.

Who knows what will be admissible in court, but when Pence speaks these days, I am sure most potential jurors are watching him tell the truth.