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 Tales from real life |
| Well, if they're not true, they oughta be! |
There are many things that used to be considered normal, but would freak people out today. Like kids riding in the back of a pickup truck, smoking in a restaurant, or playing with mercury. I remember that there was a small bottle of mercury on a knickknack shelf at my grandma’s house. It might have been ‘liberated’ in the 1930s by my uncle Bill when he worked in the underground copper mines in Butte, Montana. It might even have been left over from the 1860s when my great-grandpa Albert panned for gold near Virginia City during the Montana gold rush. Mercury can be used to separate gold dust from sand and gravel, and it’s still being used today for gold mining in third world countries. Regardless of its source, the silvery liquid metal on grandma Anna’s shelf was tempting to us kids The thick glass bottle was rectangular rather than round, and it had a wire bail cap with a rubber gasket that kept the mercury safely sealed inside. Its label was long gone so I don’t know if the bottle originally contained liquor, patent medicine, or maybe that was just the way mercury was packaged way back when. The bottle looked old-fashioned to me even in 1967. Liquid mercury is a fascinating thing to a 10-year-old, bright silver and mysteriously viscous as it flows back and forth. Unlike water, its surface tension is so high that it ‘stands up’ as though repelled by the glass wall of the bottle. The most startling thing, though, is its weight. Mercury is 13 times as dense as water. That small bottle contained only eight or ten fluid ounces, but it hefted like a ten-pound sack of sugar. Grandpa Fisher would smile when one of us would fail to pick it up on the first try. A really small kid might have to use both hands. And such a treasure was too difficult to resist, so I took a cue from my uncle and ‘liberated’ a spoonful to show to my fifth-grade friends. Everyone was impressed, as I’d hoped, but my little relish jar wasn’t as secure as the bottle at grandma’s house. The mercury escaped one afternoon as it was being passed around on the school bus. Soon, there were little beads of bright silver rolling up and down the grooves of the rubber mat in the aisle. Every time the bus slowed or went downhill, the beads rolled forward. They’d roll back again with acceleration or an uphill climb. We all giggled hysterically for the rest of our trip home that day. I couldn’t tell the bus driver, of course, and I’ve sometimes wondered if he ever figured out what was going on. Maybe he didn’t even notice, mercury is quite volatile, so it would have evaporated in a day or two. The only lasting evidence was the unseen damage to our bodies from inhaling toxic mercury vapor. Several years later, I learned about the very real danger of mercury fumes when our high school science teacher decided to make a J-tube barometer. He used a Bunsen burner to soften some glass tubing and slowly bent it into a J shape. Then he put a dollop of mercury inside and closed off the short end by melting it with the Bunsen burner. The result was an air bubble trapped in the short side of the J-tube. The mercury level in the long side of the tube changes depending on the outside air pressure. So, the J-tube can be mounted on a piece of poster board with a scale, and the level of the mercury can be used as a barometric pressure gauge. It took Mr. Foulis a number of tries to perfect his technique and he spilled mercury onto the lab bench once or twice when the glass tubing broke. Heat from the Bunsen burner only exacerbated his exposure to the mercury vapor. The cumulative effect of breathing the toxic fumes over a span of several days landed him in the hospital with symptoms similar to pneumonia. The mercury vapor damaged his lungs and he was coughing up bloody mucous. Fortunately, he recovered and returned to school a couple of weeks later with a truly convincing lesson about the dangers of mercury poisoning and the need for lab safety gear. This happened about the same time that mercury contamination in food fish, such as tuna, was in the news. Environmental mercury gets into the ocean from natural sources such as erosion and volcanic activity. Even more comes from coal-fired power plants and illegal gold mining. The mercury builds up in fatty tissue and becomes more concentrated as it rises up the food chain. These were all proven facts, yet I remember a general sense of skepticism about the dangers of mercury poisoning. The toxic effects were already well known, but parents didn’t want to hear that a tasty tuna casserole could be harmful to their children. It was easier to scoff at the biologists and remain blissfully ignorant. But long-term exposure to mercury at low levels can cause brain damage or kidney failure. In the 18th century, mercury was part of the process for making felt hats. Milliners were constantly exposed to traces of mercury in the fabric and their symptoms became the source of the old saying, “Mad as a hatter.” So, it’s definitely better to limit our exposure. Today, my mercury story makes me think of the woke movement. Anti-woke conservatives are quite open about keeping their children ignorant of anything that might embarrass them. They don’t want to acknowledge the ‘bad’ parts of history like slavery and Jim Crow by teaching kids about the civil rights movement. Instead, they want to emphasize glorious accomplishments of white ‘Christian’ males while glossing over the contributions of women and minorities. Presidential mandates have already led to the purging of ‘woke’ stories from government and military websites. The anti-woke movement uses MAGA as a justification for not loving their neighbors. More importantly, buying into MAGA allows them to avoid responsibility for being their brother’s keeper. Willful ignorance means they don’t have to welcome immigrants, act with Christian charity toward others, or even pay taxes. They even think it’s smart to extort money from other countries with tariffs. To some extent I understand the ‘ignorance is bliss’ attitude. I'd certainly feel less guilty about exposing my classmates to mercury if I'd never found out about its toxic effects. On the other hand, if I’d fully understood the danger (woke), I might not have played with it like a shiny toy. And if my grandma had been more aware, that bottle of mercury might not have been left within reach of a curious child. Bigotry, racism, and a sense of cultural entitlement are a bit like mercury poisoning. Sources aren’t always obvious, even low exposure builds up in society, and the long-term effects are severe. Kids aren’t born to hate. It takes bigoted adults to teach them who and how to hate. Sometimes the adults aren’t even aware of what they’re teaching. That’s a real problem. And awareness of a problem is the first step in finding a solution. Ignorance is never an acceptable strategy. I believe woke is the first step in protecting all children from being poisoned by systemic bigotry. And only the woke will be able to feel empathy and find solutions. |
| Reposted from Real Fake News: Trump Bans Number 42 by staff reporter Bob L. Head “Number 42 was the original DEI hire,” smirked President Trump as he signed an executive order directing Major League Baseball to remove all references to Jackie Robinson from their Jackie Robinson Day celebration. "If we're gonna celebrate a number, then let's do 47. Your favorite president is a real winner. That Robinson guy never won an election, and he never drew crowds as big as mine!" “And we're finally going to re-integrate baseball,” the president continued. "It's time that foreign players stopped taking jobs from real Americans. The MLB can stop the DEI hiring policies or I'll do it for them. I'm calling on the Dominicans, Cubans, and especially the Venezuelans to self-deport or face going to prison in El Salvador. And the NFL better pay attention, I'm coming for them next!" |
King Don the Turd claims that America is being cheated by foreign nations, but he's so full of shit that his middle name is John (true story!). The truth is always the exact opposite of what Trump claims. The U.S. standard of living is actually the highest in the world. American obesity is epidemic, and the fitness industry brings in $40 billion a year. Middle-class American families have two cars, and most people drive to work. In Europe, a middle-class family might have one car, and most people go to work by bus, bicycle, or on foot. Gasoline in almost all other countries costs 1 1/2 to 2 times what Americans pay. Foreign visitors are always shocked by America's huge supermarkets overflowing with low-priced food products. Housing in the U.S. is also more affordable. Other countries have mortgage terms of 50 years or more. The only way a family can purchase a home is for the children to inherit their parent's loan. And amid all this plenty, the U.S. ranks only 45th in taxes paid by the average citizen. How can the U.S. enjoy so much and pay so little? It's all based on debt and deficit spending. That is simply a fact. The U.S. national debt was approximately $6 trillion in 2001, when George W. Bush took office. It was the last time that the U.S. government achieved a balanced budget. By the end of 2024, the debt grew to almost $36 trillion. The math isn't difficult (unless you're in the Trump cabinet). America has spent $30 trillion of other people's money since 2001. If any nation is being cheated, it certainly isn't America. Bill Clinton's budget surplus was due to taxes that he pushed through in his first year in office (although his budgets also contained some spending cuts). The Clinton tax increase was directed at upper-income taxpayers. Republicans falsely claimed it was the largest tax increase in history, and they portrayed it as a horrible burden for the middle class. The smear tactic worked well enough that Dubya was able to steal the 2000 election and begin the process of looting the U.S. economy on behalf of a wealthy elite. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned idea of paying your own way? Americans hold some of the national debt (I have some savings bonds myself), and half of it is made up of accounting tricks where the government borrows money from itself, but almost 25% is held by foreign countries. And the biggest incentive for foreigners to invest in the United States is stability. Wealthy elites from around the world park their money in American investments because they feel safe. But now we have a freakin' moron in charge who boasts, "I love chaos." He's determined to extort even more money from people who are already financing America's spending addiction (Make America Grift Again). And a very plausible response to this insane trade war is to halt investment in the U.S. economy. If the value of the dollar falls, then foreign investors could sell their holdings or even call in their loans. The result would be a downward spiral for the U.S. dollar that might last for years. This would make the government debt that Americans hold worth far less than they invested. The Trump administration might even choose to default on U.S. bonds. What a rosy prospect! And even if the tariffs did force manufacturing back to the U.S, prices would be permanently higher. Lower cost is why the Republicans moved their businesses to Asia in the first place. Many Asian workers get a daily wage comparable to an American's hourly wage. Are you patriotic enough to take a 50% pay cut to prop up the economy? How would you support your current spending habits if you did? The process of moving industry takes years. Wages would be lost entirely in the interim and sales of almost everything would suffer. So, what do we call it when the economy shrinks, the dollar goes down and prices go up? That's right, inflation. Fueled by the bilious gases that emanate from the biggest horse's ass in history. Perhaps that's why he calls himself a stable genius. |
Extortion is far more profitable than business, and it's less work too! - The Gospel of Trump There have been multiple reports of law firms caving in to demands from the Trump administration. Some have promised him free legal services, some have donated to his personal political action committee, and all of them have promised to support his white supremacy agenda. The Trump goons prefer to call it 'anti-diversity' but we all know what they mean (and it is mean). Why this sudden burst of craven cowardice? The president has issued a formal memo to the Justice Department and Homeland Security that directs them to open an investigation into any law firm who brings a civil case against the Trump administration. What might best describe this tactic? To borrow a term from the president himself, this is weaponization of the Justice Department for his own personal benefit. But that's only one example of blatant corruption in the White House. The Trump criminal organization has also begun selling presidential pardons. Last Friday, Trump signed a pardon for Trevor Milton, founder of an electric vehicle company named Nikola. Milton defrauded investors by showing them a faked video of a Nikola truck. He claimed that the video showed a prototype vehicle in operation when it was actually just coasting downhill. And closer inspection revealed that it was really a GM product disguised with Nikola badging. The video evidence made the case an easy win for the prosecution. Milton was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison. Why would Trump pardon such an obvious con man? Well, Milton is on record as being a staunch Trump supporter and, more importantly, he recently donated $1.8 million to Trump's personal PAC. I don't know if that's a bribe, a quid pro quo, or just a favor. Those terms all seem to be interchangeable in Washington D.C. these days. At any rate, when asked about giving the pardon, Trump said that he didn't actually know the man or the details of the case. He merely 'heard good things about him' from 'a lot of people'. The president also tossed out a conjecture that Milton was prosecuted only because he's a Trump supporter. Why would malicious prosecution spring to mind? I suppose it's kind of like using the Justice Department to prosecute a law firm just because they represent someone who isn't a Trump supporter. You might also wonder how Trevor Milton gained access to make such a deal. It turns out that he hired Brad Bondi to plead his case. Does that name sound familiar? Yep, Brad is Attorney General Pam Bondi's brother. And he's getting a nice fat fee for using his sister's position in the Trump administration to further the interests of his client. Hmm, isn't that pretty much what Hunter Biden was accused of? Of course, there wasn't ever any real evidence against Hunter Biden. Maybe that was also malicious prosecution, because he wasn't a Trump supporter. Maybe he should have been more open about soliciting bribes. And more forthcoming about giving the Don a taste. |
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