Electric cars can't charge houses yet, but Seth Blumsack at The Conversation tells us it's just a matter of time. There are logistic obstacles -- car batteries have to be able to run electricity in both directions, and metering equipment would have to be able to shut off electricity from the grid when folks want to run the house on their cars (which they'd do in a blackout, of course, but also during more expensive peak hours) -- but they're not insurmountable. The bigger obstacle might be keeping the folks who don't have cars from paying more for electricity.
Hard to believe, Harry, but our IRS's privatized debt collection program isn't just bringing in only about half the revenue it expected, it's also underreporting its costs. But wait, there's more! About one in every five targets of this program lives below the poverty line; I don't know about you, but I'd go where the money actually is! This is the third go-round for privatized tax collection, and it didn't work the first two times, either; I'd understand if you said how many more times until they learn? Problem is they already know. P.J. O'Rourke, God rest him, used to say that Republicans aimed to prove government didn't work by running it into the ground.
Ralph Nader, writing at Counterpunch, points out that no Senators asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson any questions about corporate power. That includes very, very important questions a Justice will eventually have to rule upon, such as trade agreements' power to nullify American laws (via the notorious investor-state dispute settlement system). But while Republican Senators soiled themselves in public trying to "trap" Judge Jackson somehow, Democrats slip by without asking any really tough questions about the real threat to American freedom: untrammeled corporate power.
Former actual journalist Lara Logan has sunk to the point where she says, out loud, that Darwinism comes from the Jews. "I'm not saying none of it is true," she strains to point out as if we should be grateful for such generosity, "I'm just saying Darwin was hired by someone to come up with a theory -- based on evidence, OK, fine." And by "someone" she means the Rothchilds, who also (according to Rep. Greene) facilitated the creation of a space laser to cause California wildfires. I'm not sure we should call this an anti-Semitic "dog whistle," since everyone can hear it!
Oh crap "St. Louis beer heiress" Trudy Busch Valentine is running for the Democratic nomination in the Missouri U.S. Senate race. They must be thrilled that they can make people think about beer whenever they think about Democrats, but they're still clueless about the fact that people don't want heirs running things! Lucas Kunce merits only one mention in this article, which is better than the other nine ("at least"!) Democrats running for the seat who go nameless, but let's be clear: Lucas Kunce is the Democrat the establishment fears most -- because he's got the best shot at doing good works if he wins.
Finally, how absurd have the pro-Putin arguments gotten? Tucker Carlson suggests we need Vlad the Bad to stand between his nation's Muslim extremists and the nuclear weapons they might steal and fire on America! After all, there'll be "no one running the country" if he's not there! After all, when has a Russian leader ever succeeded another? This is a real Rube Goldberg contraption of an argument, but worse than that, it's hostage-taking -- don't wish for dictators to be powerless, he's saying, or America could die! It's the same kind of reasoning that puts "strongmen" in power in the first place! But we're not hostages -- we're free people.
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