The tRumpster formally plead not guilty yesterday.
“Among Republicans, 43% said their view didn’t change of Trump, 22% said the allegations made them feel more negative about Trump, while 27% said it made them feel more positively about him.” More than 60% of Americans believe he should not be allowed to run if convicted, but the majority of repugants obviously don’t support that. So messy.
Thank you for reading today's post. Have an InterStellar Day! ~PrP
I think I’m in love with an alien. Do I have to worry?
Only if you expect from him the life a human male.
Did You Know?
Although the image format GIF is pronounced with a hard g (as in “gift” or “graft”) by most people today, the format’s creators pronounced it with a soft g (as in “jiffy” or “gin”).
And what to make of royal families? Talk about nepotism personified, my goodness. And I say this is as someone who is a fairly supportive of monarchies, but lets face it, none of these people would eat as well as they do had they not been born with the right pedigree. People make a big deal of people in Hollywood who got where they are because of ‘nepotism’ but their position in life is harmless, really, they’re just actors and actresses, and in the grand scheme of things, they mean nothing. I invite you to dig a little deeper, dear reader. What is this supposed ‘controversy’ designed to distract you really from?
There’s nepotism everywhere. From America, to Russia, to China — run by “princelings”, all of them sons and grandsons of founding members of the Communist Party — to Ukraine, the European Union nations. An incredibl small number of ultra-rich families hold ALL the power in this world, hoarding it senselessly. And all these people want is for you and I to worry about nepotism in Hollywood, of all places. A very convenient distraction so we don’t dig too deeply into matters that truly matter.
Did You Know?
Why does the hour have 60 minutes? Why isn’t it divided into an easier number base like 10?
Our way of division came from the Sumerians. The Sumerians looked to the sky to invent the system of time we still use today. It’s curious that we divide hours into 60 minutes and days into 24 hours. But why don’t we use a multiple of 10?
The answer is because the inventors of time did not operate in a decimal (base 10) system, but in a sexagesimal (base 60) system.
For the ancient Sumerian inventors who first divided the movements of the sky into countable intervals, 60 was the perfect and ideal number because it can be divided into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30 equal parts. Furthermore, ancient astronomers believed that there were 360 days in a year, a number that would neatly fit six times. The Sumerian Empire didn’t last long, however, for over 5,000 years, the world maintained its way of classifying the delimitation of time.
Humans kill Protestants in the name of the Catholic faith. Humans kill Buddhists in the name of China. Humans kill Hindus in the name of Buddha. Humans kill Christians in the name of Islam. Protestants kill in the name for whatever reasons their prophets tell them. Yet, you say we should obey the “Non Interference Principle.” We have visited more than eleven thousand worlds, never has there been a better reason to scrap that Principle.
Iran has given the Shiite militia a dirty bomb. We discovered an off-the-charts radium deposit. That type of reading requires at least 50 pounds of isotope to give off a reading that intense. You don’t see it, you don’t smell it, you don’t hear it. It kills absolutely and without warning. To protect her we may have to confiscate it. Does this violate the NIP edict?
Modern weaponry waits for no man. ISIS hasn’t finished its dance with the West. Do not interfere with matters here. We have been feeding many of you for years. If she who you wish to protect is in Europe, we will wait until she leaves. You have our word on it.
We have detected that that you have impregnated your explosive charge with the raw isotope given to you by Iran. As powerful as you think your primitive weapons are, if we surround it with one of our primitive shields, it will only kill those within the shield and be completely neutralized as to its capability of harming anything once the shield is removed. Do not attempt to bargain with us. The god of your primitive religion will be of no resource to you. We can keep you alive for an eternity and do with you as we please. If you want to see what a god can do, our technology will show you power beyond the imagination of any earth god. If we feel that you threaten her in any way, we will beam up all 113,641 of you and begin introducing you to a concept of pain you cannot imagine. There will be no death for you for 900 years, only pain and the hunger for the relief that only death can bring. Not even your god will remember your names 900 years later when we grant you that relief.
We are getting old, while the men we break in are getting younger, but we will find you fucking aliens and kill you all.
We know who you are. Your group allowed ISIS to control a third of Syria and 40% of Iraq. They controlled Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, its nominal capital. Your group allowed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi to form a caliphate stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq. We helped you take back 95% of that territory. And as a reward you fired three 84-millimeter rocket launchers at our two emissaries. How did that turn out?
Orwell said that people sleep peaceably in their beds at night because rough men, and in today’s case, rough women, stand ready to do violence on their behalf. You were perceived as an impediment to that peaceful sleep.
It is an odd experience seeing parents age when we are ouselves are old.
JOKE:
Four men were playing golf. Three took turns at boasting about their sons, knowing the fourth son was gay, and having disparaging thoughts about him.
The first chap says: My son has done extremely well this year. He has made such a pile that he was even able to make a friend a gift of a brand new house!
Wow, say the others.
The next father boasts, Well my boy this year did so well financially that he was able to give a friend a brand new Lamborghini!
Wow, say the others.
The third chap says: As for my son, this year he made so much extra money he was able to take a friend on a round-the-world cruise — they are still away!
Wow, say the others… Respect!
The fourth father finally has a turn to speak. The other fathers stifle their laughter.
– Well, as you know, my son is gay. And this year he has done so extremely well…
one lover gave him a brand-new house;
another lover gave him a brand-new Lamborghini;
and the third lover has taken him away on a round-the-world cruise… he’s still on it.
Touché!
At a workshop on dog temperament, the instructor stated that a test for a canine’s disposition was for an owner to fall down and act hurt.
A dog with a poor temperament would try to bite the person, whereas a good dog would lick his owner’s face or show concern.
Once, while eating pizza in the living room, I decided to try out this theory on my two dogs.
I stood up, clutched my heart, let out a scream, and collapsed on the floor.
The dogs looked at me, glanced at each other, and raced to the coffee table for my pizza.
JOKE:
A salesman drove into a small town where a circus was playing. A sign read:
“Don’t Miss The Amazing Italian”. The salesman bought a ticket and sat down. There, under The Big Top, in the centre ring, was a table with three walnuts on it. Standing next to it was an old Italian.
Suddenly, the old man dropped his pants, whipped out his huge male member and smashed all the walnuts with three mighty swings! The crowd erupted in applause and the elderly Italian was carried off on their shoulders.
Fifteen years later the salesman visited the same little town, found the same circus and saw the same faded sign that read, “Don’t Miss The Amazing Italian”. He couldn’t believe the old guy was still alive, much less still doing his act!
He bought a ticket. Again, the center ring was illuminated. This time, however, instead of walnuts, three coconuts were placed on the table. The Italian stood before them, then suddenly dropped his pants and smashed the coconuts with three swings of his amazing member.
The crowd went wild! Flabbergasted, the salesman requested a meeting with him after the show. “You’re incredible!” he told the Italian, “but I have to know something. I saw your act 15 years ago and you were using walnuts. Why the switch from walnuts to coconuts?”
“Well,” said the Italian, “My eyes aren’t what they used to be”
The recording device is at capacity
Repaired it.
My friend Ray, says that the only woman who could compare to the natural beauty of his new found “lovely” is a young Jennifer Connelly. What say you aliens who have been around for a few hundred years?
Who the f is Ray? Why does he get to hang out with you aliens?
Progress, finally
In the early 2000s, the wage gap between Black and white workers in the U.S. was as large as it had been in 1950.
That is a shocking statistic and a sign of the country’s deep racial inequality. Over the past five years, however, the story has changed somewhat: The wage gap, though still enormous, has shrunk. “It’s a pretty meaningful reversal,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told me.
In today’s newsletter — on Juneteenth — I’ll try to explain why the gap has narrowed and what would have to happen for it to narrow more. After all, even with the recent progress, the median Black worker makes 21 percent less than the median white worker.
1. A strong economy
There appear to be three main causes of the recent trend, and the most significant is the country’s tight labor market. The unemployment rate has been falling for most of the past decade and has recently been near its lowest levels since the 1960s.
Tight labor markets help almost all workers, and they tend to help disadvantaged workers the most. As Gould put it, “When employers can’t be quite as choosy — when employers have to look beyond their network — that can provide more opportunities for historically marginalized groups.”
This dynamic helps close the Black-white wage gap because Black workers are overrepresented among low-wage workers. (A Times story set in Philadelphia went into more detail, focusing on Markus Mitchell, a worker there.) The Hispanic-white wage gap has also declined recently.
William Spriggs, a labor economist and Howard University professor who died unexpectedly this month, often made this point. In one of his last interviews, Spriggs told my colleague Ben Casselman that he was concerned the recent Federal Reserve interest-rate increases would weaken the labor market and undo the recent progress of Black workers.
“You should see from this moment what you are truly risking,” Spriggs said. (If you have a few minutes this morning, I recommend reading his Times obituary.)
Of course, inflation is also a serious economic problem, which is why the Fed has raised rates. But the recent narrowing of racial wage inequality is a reminder that the Fed faces risks both from doing too little to fight inflation and from doing too much. “Tight labor markets make almost everything else easier,” said Suzanne Kahn, a historian who works at the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank.
2. The Fight for $15
More than a decade ago, a group of fast-food workers in New York City began agitating for a higher minimum wage. They attracted the support of Senator Bernie Sanders, the leaders of the Service Employees International Union and other high-profile allies. The movement became known as the Fight for $15.
It has not persuaded Congress to lift the federal minimum wage, mostly because of opposition from congressional Republicans. The federal hourly minimum has been $7.25 since 2009, even as inflation has eroded its value. But the Fight for $15 movement has helped change policy in states and cities.
A minimum wage well above $7.25 is a broadly popular idea, including among many Republican voters and independents. Ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage have passed over the last decade in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and several other states. As a result, the effective national minimum wage — a weighted average of state minimum wages, adjusted for inflation — has risen to nearly its highest level in 40 years (before falling a bit lately because of high inflation.)
Source: Ben Zipperer, Economic Policy Institute | Wages are in May 2023 dollars. | By The New York Times
Minimum-wage increases tend to shrink the racial wage gap for the same reason that tight labor markets do: Black workers disproportionately work in low-wage jobs. As a result, one powerful way to reduce racial inequality is to reduce economic inequality.
The flip is also true. The racial wage gap widened in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s mostly because income inequality was soaring.
3. Black Lives Matter
After a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd on May 25, 2020, racial inequity became a focus of intense national attention. Many companies promised to diversify their work forces and leadership ranks, and some took concrete action.
At Fortune 500 companies, for example, Black board members occupied less than 9 percent of all board seats in 2020, according to Deloitte. By last year, the number had risen to 12 percent (compared with 14 percent of the U.S. population). It remains unclear how widespread the changes in corporate America have been; corporate boards obviously make up a tiny share of jobs. But the recent emphasis on diversity has probably played at least a modest role in narrowing racial gaps.
There is a larger point here. Yes, a reduction in economic inequality can substantially shrink the Black-white wage gap. But that gap will never approach zero so long as racial inequities remain as large as they are in the U.S. today.
The problem is not only that Black workers disproportionately work in low-wage job categories; it’s also that Black Americans make less money on average than similar white Americans. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a typical Black worker last year made 13 percent less than a typical white worker who was the same age and gender, had the same amount of education and lived in the same region. And the racial wealth gap is even larger than the wage gap.
Related: A new book, “Just Action,” offers policy ideas for reducing residential segregation, much of which is the legacy of subsidized mortgages that were designed to exclude Black Americans. Today, write the authors, Richard and Leah Rothstein, “Placing ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs is not enough.”
More on Juneteenth
Black cowgirls and cowboys came together for a Juneteenth rodeo in Portland. See images of the bull riding and gleaming buckles.
To formerly enslaved Black Catholics who stayed in the faith after the Civil War, the church was bigger than the sinful white men within it, Rachel Swarns writes in Times Opinion.
Tiya Miles argues that Juneteenth is a national holiday that should retain its local flavor. (Here are descriptions of the celebrations in Galveston, Texas; Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; and elsewhere.)
Thank you for your suggestion that we use anterograde amnesia to solve our human problem. It works better than the standard “grown-up syndrome” for our purposes.
Is Gavin going to announce?! I’m so here for it! Sleepy Joe has got to go!
I had a dream you got through the Gate. Let’s get together while you are down. We can follow up from our last conversation.
Waiting for clearance.
What’s the waiting period on the gate?
If we only knew.
You will not have to worry about humans cloning any of them. They landed in Alaska about 600 years ago. The half-life of DNA molecules is 521 years, so there’s no chance we’ll be pulling some perfectly preserved samples out of amber or a glacier anytime soon.
That is your mistake. Pulling fingerprints from images humans post online can be done. The problem is humans will soon be doing it too.