- United States’ defense spending is still pretty ridiculous. “The United States spends over four times as much in its defense budget as its nearest rival, China. In fact, its budget comes close to matching that of its 14th closest rivals put together.” Just imagine where the U.S. could be in terms of truly important areas like education if we just cut that budget in half and spent the money on improving schools or infrastructure or shoring up Social Security for good. But I guess it’s good that we can use our absurd military spending to stabilize places around the world like in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen and help keep the antiquated idea of monarchy alive and strong in places like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Yay, America!
- France sold the Egyptian government military equipment. 24 Rafale fighter jets along with other supplies amounting to over $5 billion will be headed to the government that came to power in a not-a-coup military coup. While the Egyptian government is seemingly making some strides toward logic, it’s probably far too early to start selling them equipment that they may decide to use on say, I don’t know, their own people. But, like the U.S. military industrial complex, when you have a bunch of war equipment burning a hole in your pocket, gotta find somewhere to sell it no matter how immoral.
- U.S. crime rate continues to fall and it’s not because we are throwing more people in jail and prison than every other country on the planet. A new report offers no definitive explanation as to the reason for the continued decline of crime but does state that mass incarceration is not the culprit. And the incredible decrease should continually be noted since many people believe the opposite due to the way the media sensationalizes crime:
Between 1991 and 2013, the violent crime rate declined by more than 50 percent, according to FBI figures. During the same time frame, property crime fell by 46 percent.
- Droughts in the U.S. are going to get a lot worse despite how bad they have already been in recent years. Quite a bit to digest in the article but the key reality is this: droughts will start lasting for decades, not years, because of man-made climate change. In other words, things are super great now in places like California and Texas compared to what they will be in the future if nothing drastic is done to avert the crisis. At least there aren’t any climate change-deniers in power in Texas because that would just be crazy… Speaking of Texas-style crazy…
- On gay marriage, insane right-winger Ted Cruz morphs into…a moderate democrat?! It’s true as the last-ditch effort before the nationwide legalizing of gay marriage coming in June is to apparently try to pass a bill calling for states’ rights on the issue. Saying it should be left up to the states to decide is basically the exact argument many Democratic politicians were making 10 years ago when they were too cowardly to just stand up for what was right (I’m looking at you, former presidential candidate Kerry). On a side note, the language Cruz and his ilk use on the issue is both ridiculous and vicious. He states his bill will “safeguard the ability of states to preserve traditional marriage for their citizens” (emphasis added). This suggests “traditional marriage” will simply cease to exist if gay marriage is ever allowed, which has already proven to be clearly untrue and is just a ranting from a madman.
