Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

 Answer: Everything. This Presidential election was probably won before it even started. It is a winning strategy to weaponize the media to make its viewers believe lies. The truth is that crime is down; the economy (by most measures) is very strong; 99.9% of illegal immigrants across the southern border are peaceful and contribute significantly to our society; COVID and other vaccines are safe and necessary; liberal policies are good for ordinary people. And yet more than half of US voters believe the opposite, and are highly motivated to return the former president to office. I'm afraid that, when so many people are so easily brainwashed and led by fear, then it's just about over (this Freedom experiment) for all of us. I sure hope I'm wrong. But there is only so much "stupid" and "evil" that a fragile republic can withstand. A republic requires, for its very existence, citizens who are educated and know how to think critically, and who stay involved a

  Likely outcomes of this first Trump trial: 1. Hung jury (jury divided on convicting; about 48% likely): Prosecutors could choose to re-try Trump, but that couldn't happen before the election. 2. Trump convicted (48% likely): Sentencing wouldn't happen for at least a couple of months, and then there will be years of appeals, during which Trump won't go to prison. So there is zero chance, even with a conviction, of Trump going to prison before the election. It seems unlikely, based on recent polling, that many Trump supporters would change their minds about voting for him, even if he is convicted. 3. Trump acquitted (very unlikely, say the experts: about 2% chance). And it's unclear whether Trump's next criminal trial will start before the election.

  It is difficult to overstate how awful Comcast/Xfinity is. They jacked my rate for internet, from $61 to $82/month, with no notice. So I play the game by calling them (guess what--they don't provide their customer service # on their website, so you have to hunt online for it), and after long pauses over a 30 minute ordeal, they finally offer me $45/month. The reduction actually pisses me off, because corporations owe a duty to their customers, and should set rates that provide a reasonable profit. At $82/month, clearly they are price-gouging if they are willing to offer $45/month. This should be illegal, and state attorneys general should be putting Comcast execs in jail. Making your customers notice the unannounced price increase, and making us hunt for your phone # (their online assistant couldn't help me with this), and making us call and wait and negotiate for a better rate, is the worst sort of customer service imaginable. OK, almost the worst. I suppose Comcast/Xfinity

  You know the nation is very sick, when it produces these two choices for President. (1) The #1 issue for voters is the economy, but most voters don't realize that both candidates' Presidential administrations ran the national debt up dramatically, without objecting to the long-term damage it will cause. And the policies of both men will very likely cause real inflation (not the fake inflation numbers reported to us) to continue to surge, as the middle class continues to shrink and suffer. (2) It makes me feel sick that the President is pandering to the Jewish vote so brazenly that he would brand as "outrageous" the ICC's rational decision to brand Netanyahu's genocide as a war crime. It seems clear that both Hamas and the Israeli leader have committed war crimes, and the US as a world leader should do something about it, instead of enabling the genocide. (3) Trump panders/lies to his base on hot-button issues, but for him everything is really about enrichin

The bankruptcy of Red Lobster reveals one of America's worst problems: The institutionalization of mechanisms for the rich to get richer, at the expense of everyone else. It seems the robber barons never went away. General Mills bought Red Lobster, decades ago, then spun it off as Darden Restaurants. Another Darden restaurant, Olive Garden, prospered, but Red Lobster didn't, and suffered from lower and lower investment.  Then Darden sold Red Lobster to Golden Gate Capital, a hedge fund, in 2014. Red Lobster did a sale-leaseback at that time, and the new landlord raised the rent to Red Lobster. That was 10 years ago, but it did put major pressure on the restaurant.  Then Golden Gate sold a minority stake to Thai Union, which was Red Lobster's shrimp purveyor.  Red Lobster had not only "endless shrimp," but also "endless bad CEOs." For years, they strangled the company with poor decisions. The endless shrimp debacle might've been the straw that broke t