Random Notes from a Crank

The other day I watched a commercial that touted "pre-tariff pricing." I suspect we might see more of that kind of advertising in the future. 

Here are some statistics from the July and August Harper's Indexes:

• Percentage of Americans who fear that they or a loved one will be deported: 19
• Portion of Americans who say they have recently delayed a major purchase because of tariffs: 1/3
• Who say they have cancelled such a purchase entirely: 1/4
• Percentage of Americans who said last year that foreign trade represented an opportunity to grow the U.S. economy: 60
• Who say so now: 81
• Average number of instruction hours that it takes to become a lawyer in the United States: 1,250
• To become a licensed hairdresser: 1,500
• Number of excess deaths projected to occur by 2040 if cuts to foreign aid remain in place: 25,300,000
• Portion of people worldwide who say they would contribute 1 percent of their income toward combating climate change: 7/10
• Of Americans who say they would do so: 1/2
• Percentage of Americans who said that the Bible was "true" in 2016: 36
• Who say so now: 48
• Portion of Americans who regard religious leaders as trustworthy sources of medical information: 1/3

I'm surprised the fear of someone being deported is that low. I thought it would be higher. However, maybe the stat reflects the percentage of the Latino population in the U.S. 

Fucking tariffs. 

81% saying that foreign trade is a good thing is reinforced by President Adolf's stupid policies. 

The number of projected deaths because of lack of foreign aid is mind boggling. 

Too few Americans care about climate change. It's embarrassing. 

Regarding the Bible being "true" and trusting religious leaders, way too many people believe in magical thinking. Imbeciles.

Two of the biggest scams in the U.S. is how much ministers get paid and that churches don't get taxed. 

The nonsense Moscow Don is doing with Washington D.C. only strengthens my feelings that both D.C. and Puerto Rico need to become states. 

Puerto Rico has a larger population than these states: Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. That's 18 states. 

D.C. has a larger population than two states: Vermont and Wyoming.  

Random Notes from a Crank

 

I saw this image from the Radical Centrist on FB. I thought I'd share. 

If you were to make a Venn diagram of these assertions, that Venn diagram don't hunt. 

I don't understand why Tottenham Hotspur appears not to be showing any interest in the Canadian striker Jonathan David. 

He's a free agent. He's two-footed. He's productive. He's in his mid-20s. And there's no transfer free. I think he's a fabulous player. 

In a recent YouGov daily survey, 50% of people polled said "Yes" to this question:"Would you ever vote for a third party or an independent candidate?" I said Yes to that question. I'd vote for one for sure if the candidate was viable. 

The third question was "Do you think a third major political party is necessary for the United States, or are the Democratic and Republican parties enough?" 55% answered "A third party is necessary in the U.S." Only 20% agreed with "The Democratic and Republican parties are enough to represent Americans." 25% were "Not sure." 

Mother Jones has a solid short article that describes the importance of preserving and probably expanding wetlands: "The Economic Case for Preserving America's Wetlands." 

As the author relates, wetlands work like sponges, so they can prevent the massive flooding events that are only going to be more frequent because of climate change. Unfortunately, under the the administration of President Adolf, I doubt many projects like the one in Raleigh are going to get going.  

A frightening article in that same issue of Mother Jones is one about Clearview AI, a facial-recognition tech company whose founders have ties to right-wing extremists, Holocaust deniers, and Neo-Nazis. 

Check out "The Shocking Far-Right Agenda behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI."

Here are some interesting statistics from the June "Harper's Index":

• Percentage by which tourism to the United States is projected to decrease this year: 9
• Percentage increase this year in seizures of eggs being smuggled into the United States: 48
• Percentage increase last year in the number of U.S. households that owned chickens: 28
• Factor by which the word "notable" appears more frequently in AI-generated sentences than in those written by humans: 13
• By which the word "esteemed" does: 120

I'm surprised the decrease in tourism is only projected to be 9%. I thought it would be in the high teens.

I'll be on the lookout for "notable" and "esteemed." 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you like a good fact checking like I do, read "Fact Checking 26 Suspect Claims in Trump's Address to Congress" from The Washington Post.  

Journalists need to stop calling what he's doing as "false claims." They are LIES. I do like how the author calls one of his assertions "absurd" though. 

I learned in January issue of Harper's that the "word 'huh' or its equivalent seems to exist in every human language, for unknown reasons." That fact makes sense to me. 

Here are some interesting gleanings from the February and March Harper's Indexes:

• Rank of November 6, 2024, among the days with the most account deactivations on X since Elon Musk acquired the company: 1
• Factor by which the average wait to receive approval for federal disability benefits has increased since 2019: 2
• Estimated number of Americans who died in 2023 while waiting for such approval: 30,000
• Percentage change since 1973 in the average American's carbon emissions: -36
• Factor by which per capita U.S. carbon emissions exceed the global average: 3
• Average percentage by which the opening of a Walmart Supercenter causes nearby household incomes to decrease: 6
• Percentage of U.S. solar-power capacity growth last year accounted for by Texas: 31
• Percentage by which Texas's new solar-power capacity exceeded California's last year: 358
• Chance that an American believes they have undiagnosed ADHD: 1 in 4
• Chance that they do have ADHD: 1 in 17

I wonder how many more deactivations have happened on Twitter because of Musk's work with DOGE? I hope there have been a lot. 

And I imagine the number of Americans who will die while waiting for approval for federal disability benefits will skyrocket this year because of DOGE cuts to the workforce. 

I'm surprised about the solar growth in Texas. However, it makes sense that the state could harness solar power. 

Like ADHD, I think there is a similar difference in Americans who think they have an anxiety disorder and those who actually have an anxiety disorder. 

The U.S. is a well medicated nation because of Big Pharma. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I got this image from the InterWebs. It reflects the dual nature of my personality. 

Our little area of the country was featured by CBS evening news because of all of the damn cicadas. Check it out. 

The only error I noticed is that the location is described as "southern Illinois" when in reality it's east-central Illinois. I guess it's southern if you think of downstate Illinois as south of Chicago. 

Here are some percentages from the June "Harper's Index" that might factor into college choices:

• Percentage of U.S. college students who say reproductive-health laws were at least somewhat important to their school choice: 71
• Who say they were highly important: 38
• Percentage of Republican college students who would prefer to attend a school in a state with greater access to reproductive care: 63

Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some interesting factoids from the Harper's Indexes from March and May: 

• Percentage of Americans who say that the nation's crime rates are getting worse: 77
• Who say that crime is an "extremely serious" or "very serious" problem in their local area: 17
• Percentage decrease in murders in the United States in the past year: 12
• Percentage change since 2009 in the portion of white evangelical Americans who say that gay people face discrimination: -34
• Who say that white evangelicals face discrimination: +43
• Portion of Americans who say they would not vote for a presidential candidate who has been charged with a felony: 2/3
• Percentage of Americans who say that the United States should spend more money on assistance for poor people: 72
• Percentage who say so when this assistance is called "welfare": 29
• Factor by which low-income Americans are more likely than others to identify as vegetarian: 2
• Percentage decrease in the number of Americans who identify as vegetarian since 2018: 20
• Percentage of Americans who believe they will be harmed personally by climate change: 45
• Percentage change in the total net worth of white Americans since 2019: +26
• In the total net worth of black Americans: -4
• In the total net worth of American adults under 40: +76
• Percentage by which employees who work in person are more likely to be promoted than those who work exclusively from home: 45

Steven Pinker's book, Enlightenment Now, connects to the point that people automatically think crime is always getting worse. 

White evangelicals are the worst. 

We'll see if voters follow through on not voting for a felonious, narcissistic, pathological liar. 

The difference in attitudes about "assistance for poor people" and "welfare" is a classic case of framing language. 

I find it odd that there are fewer people identifying as vegetarian. Perhaps those vegetarians are turning vegan? 

It makes sense that people who actually work with others in person are more likely to be promoted. 

Musing of the Moment: Harper's Indexes

Here are some interesting stats and numbers from the November and December Harper's Indexes:

• Percentage by which U.S. women are more likely than men to have a tattoo: 41
• Portion of U.S. adults with tattoos who regret getting at least one of them: 1/4
• Increase since 1984 in the median age of first-time U.S. home buyers: 7
• Portion of prospective U.S. home buyers who say they consider climate change when evaluating where to live: 4/5
• Percentage change this year in sales of Bud Light: -16
• In sales of Modelo Especial: +11
• Factor by which beer imports from Mexico have increased since 2013: 2
• Percentage by which beer imports from other countries have decreased: 29
• Percentage change in the divorce rate between 2008 and 2020: -31
• In the divorce rate between 2020 and 2022: +2
• Percentage of millennials who are not planning to get married: 21
• Of adult Gen-Z-ers who are not: 7
• Percentage of U.S. adults who say the political system is working "very" or "extremely" well: 4
• Who express little confidence in the future of the political system: 63
• Who say there is too little attention paid to the important issues facing the country: 78

I have noticed women tend to have more tattoos than men these days. I had a student write a paper years ago that went against the conventional wisdom that tattoos people get are there to show one's individuality. His take was that getting a tattoo was more of a herd mentality issue with many people getting the same kinds of tattoos (certain trends), especially women. 

The so-called conservative war against Bud Light because of a transgender spokesperson is so stupid. Apparently many of these Bud Light drinkers are switching to Modelo, which is humorous because during the Trump administration that company ran TV ads that were clearly trolling Moscow Don and his hateful speech about Mexicans and immigrants. That's some serious irony. 

The rise in the divorce rate obviously has a number of factors, but it's possible the pandemic was a significant cause--and possibly the support of a certain presidential candidate. But then again, that increase should have happened in 2016. Maybe it was because certain people voted for that charlatan a second time?

With the GOP having an advantage with having two Senators for dinky population states and the stupidity of not giving Puerto Rico and D.C. statehood and an uninformed citizenry voting for candidates for stupid reasons, it's no surprise 78% think the political system is not paying attention to climate change, economic inequality, pollution, the wage gap, educational issues, good jobs in the U.S., and other concerns. 

The House, for example, has done next to nothing for years under GOP leadership. Many members of Congress are more concerned about winning elections and raising campaign funds than actually doing something to make the country better. They just want to do some political hokum to get votes. 

The GOP asserts that the "government" doesn't work. Then they get control of a significant branch of it and show everyone that it doesn't work because of their leadership. A dog chasing its own tail. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I'd like for someone to give me a scientific explanation as to why chili tastes better after you've cooked it, stored it in the refrigerator, and eaten it later.

Here are some interesting stats and factoids from the May Harper's Index:

• Number of weeks the median American head of household had to work to support a middle-class family in 1985: 40
• In 2022: 62
• Percentage increase over the past two decades in the number of Americans over 65 in the labor force: 132
• Percentage increase since 2011 in the number of managers in the U.S. labor force: 32
• Factor by which this is more than the overall increase in U.S. workers: 2.5 

And here are some more the April 3/10 issue of The Nation:

• Amount the United States spent on its military in 2020: 778 billion
• Number of Iraqi citizens killed in direct war-related violence since the 2003 U.S. invasion: 275,000
• Amount the U.S. paid private companies for products and services during the Iraq War between 2003 and 2007: 85 billion
• Estimated number of people killed directly in major U.S. wars since September 11, 2001: 900,000

The Nation had a good reprint of their editorial in that issue about how they came out against the Iraq War. What a waste of lives and resources. We never should have invaded Iraq, a position I shared with the editorial staff of The Nation.

Musing of the Moment: April Harper's Index

Here are some interesting stats and factoids from the April "Harper's Index":

• Amount, in hours, by which the top-earning 10 percent of U.S. men worked less last year than in 2019: 77
• By which the bottom-earning 10 percent of men worked more: 37
• Percentage of U.S. workers who have used ChatGPT for work who have not disclosed this: 68
• Portion of K-12 educators who have caught students using ChatGPT to cheat: 1/4
• Portion of parents with children under 18 who are worried about their children's mental health: 3/4
• Who are worried about their children being kidnapped: 3/5
• Being shot: 1/2
• Percentage decrease over the past five years in the number of Americans who believe in God: 6
• Chances that a U.S. adult under 30 believes in astrology: 2 in 5

The rich get richer and work less, and the poor work more. 

Do Chatbots dream of electric sheep?

At risk of sounding like an old fart, when I was a kid, I don't think parents gave much thought about a kid's "mental health" unless the kid showed some kind of severe problems. 

Hell, I was a depressed kid. Heck, I'm in general a depressed individual. But you don't see me going around whining about my "mental health." Some days were good. Other days weren't so good. 

So it goes. 

Considering the number of guns that are out and about in the U.S., I'm more worried about my kids getting shot at school/college or me getting shot.

I'm astounded by how many people believe in astrology. That crap is goofier in believing in a dude who turned water into wine.  

Random Notes from a Crank

I need to work into my lexicon the word booboisie. It's a word coined by H.L. Mencken that is meant to describe stupid people. Mencken was an avowed classist, so he probably meant the term to describe the dregs of a democratic system, the kind of folks who are hoodwinked by people like George Santos and Moscow Don. The kind of people who mistakenly vote against their own best interests...

I need to reread Treatise on the Gods again, a book Mencken thought was one of his best. 

Here are some interesting factoids and stats from the February "Harper's Index":

• Percentage of eligible Americans who vote: 63
• Of Hungarians: 71
• Of Uruguayans: 95
• Portion of Americans who believe the media prioritizes profits over the public interest: 3/4
• Portion of Americans who watch shows or movies with the subtitles on "most of the time": 1/2
• Of Gen-Z-ers who do: 7/10
• Percentage by which young adults are more likely to smoke cigarettes than adults aged 65 or older: 50
• By which young adults are more likely to smoke only marijuana than to smoke only cigarettes: 270

I wonder what it is about Uruguay that has such a strong voting turnout?

I use subtitles on certain programs in which the characters have strong British accents like Peaky Blinders, which I haven't watch much lately. 

The number of young people smoking weed these days is quite strong. I don't think that habit is going to make many of them go-getters. It's not like Mary Jane is a drug known for motivating folks. 

Perhaps the counterculture generation of the 60s and 70s along with NORML won? At least in certain states so far...

Random Notes from a Crank

In surprising news, the Democrats have apparently won back the Senate. Hopefully Warnock will defeat the woefully unqualified Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff. 

Why aren't people telling Walker to "stick to sports" like they did with Kaepernick and LeBron? 

I suspect the GOP will win the House with some manner of a majority, but it would be a major upset if the Democrats retain the House. I just don't see it happening. 

A man can dream though. 

Here are some interesting factoids from the November "Harper's Index": 

• Portion of Americans who say political divisions have worsened since Joe Biden took office: 2/3
• Who would prefer an alternative to the electoral college system: 3/5
• Percentage of U.S. adults who consume "severely problematic" amounts of news: 17
• Factor by which these individuals are more likely to have a serious mental illness: 9
• Percentage increase since 2019 in the number of children who are unvaccinated against polio: 35
• Estimated age at which adults are unhappiest: 48

The last estimate seems pretty accurate to me. 

I tried to see if any Forward Party candidates won election, but that party came together so recently that it seems they only endorsed certain candidates. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here's some interesting factoids from the two most recent Harper's Indexes:

• Percentage by which women are more likely than men to be interrupted in Senate committee hearings: 10
• By which such interruptions are more likely when they are discussing women's issues: 15
• Percentage change since 2010 in the average cost of an electric vehicle battery: -89
• In the average price of an electric vehicle: +80
• Average salary U.S. college students expect to make in their first job after graduation: $103,880
• Average starting salary for a U.S. college graduate: $55,260
• Percentage by which Americans drink alcohol less often than the average person worldwide: 18
• By which they get drunk more often: 58
• Percentage of Democrat-voting college students who would not go on a date with a Trump voter: 71
• Of Trump-voting college students who would not go on a date with a Democrat: 31
• Portion of U.S. pools that will be closed at some point this summer due to a lifeguard shortages: 1/3

I know if I were single I would screen potential dates on whether they support Moscow Don or not. That issue shows one's character. And if someone supports that criminal clown, they probably have all kinds of other issues, like mental illness and STIs. 

As much as I'm happy that the recent bill that was passed will give all kinds of incentives for people to buy electric vehicles, I'm worried that it is going to make crooked car dealers jack up the prices of EVs. 

One of the survey questions for a recent YouGov survey was this one: "Would you support or oppose a ban on single-use plastic water bottles?" I'm solidly in the support category in response to that question. Plastic water bottles are a menace, and bottled water is stupid. What a monumental scam that is destroying the environment with its terrible plastic waste. 

Christian Pulisic needs the get the hell out of Chelsea. I'm sure Spurs or Leeds United would take him off Chelsea's hands.

Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some factoids from the most recent editions of "Harper's Index":

• Percentage of Afghans who are expected to be living in poverty in August: 97
• Percentage of Americans who approve of labor unions: 68
• Percentage change since 2019 in U.S. labor union membership: -4
• Portion of Americans who think Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is no longer relevant: 1/4
• Percentage by which Republicans are more likely than Democrats to think so: 94
• Percentage of U.S. educators who plan to retire earlier than they had expected: 55
• Percentage of U.S. workers who received raises in the past year that kept pace with inflation: 17
• Percentage by which men with a dog in their dating-app profiles are more likely to want a long-term relationship: 90
• Increase, in years, of the average age of marriage for U.S. adults since 1970: 7

The Guardian has an interesting article that relates recent research by archeologists that goes against the traditional narratives about prehistoric men and women. The depictions follow gender-based cliches. Check out "Prehistoric Women Were Hunters and Artists as Well as Mothers, Book Reveals." 

Some of these organizers for travel baseball tournaments are sketchy as hell. My son's team had a tournament in Peoria this weekend. We were originally set to have our first pool-play game at 5pm on a Friday, which is a shitty draw. 

With all the rain, our pool-play games got switched to Sat morning, so my son and I drove in a steady drizzle and checked into the hotel and ordered pizza. Then a couple of hours later, our coach was notified that the tournament is cancelled because of rain. 

So by not telling us ahead of time that it's likely to be cancelled, they made many people pay for hotel rooms and also made money hand over fist for the sponsoring team. With a $75 admin fee multiplied by 19 teams, the sponsoring team made $1,425 with no games being played.

Thievery. 

A waste of my time. A waste of gas. A waste of my preparation. A waste of my money. 

A lot of frustration and anger. 

Random Notes from a Crank

There's a word "uncouth." But does anyone ever give someone a compliment about how "couth" they are?

Here's some interesting factoids from this month's Harper's Index:

• Percentage increase in number of yachts sold last year: 14
• Percentage increase in the wealth of U.S. billionaires since the start of the pandemic: 70
• Portion of adults who believe that U.S. crime has increased in the past year: 3/5
• Of regular Fox News viewers who believe so: 3/4
• Percentage change in the number of major crimes in the United States in the past year: -5
• Percentage by which more men died from police encounters than from testicular cancer: 135
• Minimum number of times Chevron has aired TV ads since June 2020 promoting itself as green or sustainable: 26,400
• Maximum percentage of Chevron's budget spent on green technologies in the past decade: 1
• Percentage of people worldwide who are "not too concerned" about climate change: 27
• Who are unwilling to make significant changes to their lives to reduce its effects: 19
• Factor by which someone born in 2020 will likely experience more river floods and droughts than someone born in 1960: 3
• By which they will likely experience more heat waves: 7

Since I follow the Premier League pretty heavily and I just got done watching season three of After Life, I've noticed some fun lexical differences/tendencies between English spoken and written in Great Britain and English spoken and written in the US. 

One is the use of "whilst" instead of while. I'm not a fan. 

Another is the phrase "going mental" meaning losing one's mind or going crazy. I like that phrase, and I think I'm going to start using it. 

Some people use the word "brilliant" ironically to mean that something is poorly done or something said is stupid, particularly Ricky Gervais. I'll be adopting that word in that way. 

Random Notes from a Crank

 I'm trying to catch up on my public affairs magazine reading. 

Here are some factoids from the last three months of "Harper's Indexes":

• Percentage decrease in the number of flu cases in the United States this season: 99
• Factor by which U.S. police officers are more likely to use force against left-wing protesters than right-wing protesters: 3.4
• Percentage of Black Lives Matter protests during which the police used force against protesters: 5
• Of Stop the Steal protests during which police did so: 1
• Percentage of Americans who identified as Republicans and Democrats, respectively, at the outset of 2020: 47, 45
• At the end of 2020: 39, 50
• Number of U.S. members of Congress who are not affiliated with a religion: 1
• Portion of the American population that is not: 1/4
• Percentage of 2020 Trump voters who feel more loyal to Trump than to the Republican Party: 54
• Who would support a Trump party over the Republican Party: 46
• Minimum number of identified long-term effects from contracting COVID-19: 55
• Factor by which a solar farm was more expensive to build and maintain than a coal plant in 2009: 3.2
• By which a coal plant is more expensive to build and maintain than a solar farm today: 2.2
• Estimated number of Earths that humanity would require to sustain its current level of resource consumption: 1.6
• Year in which humanity  is expected to require two Earths: 2030
• Number of U.S. state legislatures that are considering new voting restrictions: 47
• Number of such bills being considered: 361
• Percentage of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters who are "extremely concerned" about Trump supporters: 82
• Who are "extremely concerned" about voter suppression: 53
• Percentage of U.S. electric-car owners who are concerned about being able to charge their vehicles on the road: 47
• Portion of U.S. electric-car charging outlets that are in California: 1/3
• That support only Tesla vehicles: 1/5
• Minimum number of state governments that are funding efforts to modify the weather with cloud seeding: 6

Usually when I provide the stats and figures from the Harper's Index, I just leave them as for readers to ponder for themselves. But for this post since it's three-months worth of numbers and percentages, I thought I'd comment on some of them. 

With the drop of flu cases, it's clear that masks work, people. That's why people in certain countries in Asia wear masks during flu season. 

In response to the "Blue Lives Matter" crowd, it seems that the police feel conservative lives matter more. 

I hesitantly take the party affiliation changes from the start of 2020 to the end as a good sign. The Republican Party has lost any sense of a moral and/or philosophical compass with people's irrational support of Moscow Don. 

That long-term effects figure should be a part of PSAs about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

We need to build more solar farms and electric-car charging outlets. 

Back to the GOP, they want to restrict voting access because doing so helps them. But will it? I wonder if these ridiculous bills like the one in Georgia will only motivate people to vote. That's my hope. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some enlightening factoids from "Harper's Index" and Harper's Findings from the January issue:

• Number of children the Trump Administration separated from their parents at the border whose parents have yet to be located: 666
• Estimated portion of those parents who have been deported without their children: 2/3
• Factor by which the word "hate" is said more often on Fox News than on MSNBC: 5.5
• Number of climate-related disasters worldwide between 1980 and 1999: 3,656
• Between 2000 and 2019: 6,681
• Percentage by which sales on Minibar, an alcohol e-commerce site, exceeded the average on the day Biden was declared president: 76
• By which sales of champagne exceeded the average: 386
• "Five of the six early Homo species were driven to extinction by climate change." 
• "Hot days worsen test scores for black and Hispanic children."

I featured this article in the previous post about albums of the year, but do yourself a favor and read "The Words To Describe 2020," which is a recount of the words that Washington Post readers used to describe the year. The top three were "exhausting," "lost," and "chaotic." But my favorite submission was this one: "Like looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by a submarine." 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some interesting factoids from the November "Harper's Index": 

• Portion of local U.S. parks that saw an increase in visitors this spring: 2/3
• Portion of U.S. parks-and-recreation agencies that have been asked to reduce spending this fiscal year: 2/3
• Percentage by which the population of the average wildlife species has declined globally since 1970: 68
• In Latin American and the Caribbean: 94
• Rank of deforestation among the causes of wildlife decline on land: 1
• Percentage decrease in the length of the average work meeting since the onset of the pandemic: 20
• Percentage by which the unemployment rate of recently graduated U.S. physics majors exceeds that of art history majors: 60
• Average factor by which countries led by men have had more COVID-19 deaths than countries led by women: 1.9
• Factor by which mainstream newspapers cite organizations that oppose climate change more often than those that support: 2
• Portion of Americans who admit to not relying on the news sources they regard as the most trustworthy: 1/3

Since Mrs. Nasty and I don't commute that far to work, we're willing to get paid for carbon offsetting other people's long commutes. If you're interested in assuaging your liberal guilt, you can pay me via PayPal. 

I absolutely should not donate to any US Senate campaign. I gave money to Theresa Greenfield's campaign because I despise Joni Ernst. In addition, I gave money to Jaime Harrison because I despise Lindsey Graham even more. And I'd love to see Democratic US Senator from the Deep South. Both challengers lost, unfortunately. 

As the pandemic rages, Moscow Don does nothing but spite: "As Trump Stews over Election, He Mostly Ignores the Public Duties of the Presidency." 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here's some factoids from the September "Harper's Index":

• Minimum number of police killings since 2010 in which restrained victims told officers they couldn't breathe: 32
• Number of those incidents that resulted in criminal charges against the officers: 5
• Number of those cases in which charges were not eventually dropped: 2
• Average number of times per day that Donald Trump tweeted in 2017: 7
• In 2020: 32
• Percentage of Americans who want Trump to tweet more frequently: 3

And here's some tidbits from Harper's "Findings" from that same issue:

• "The depression-prone are less attracted to the political right."
• "The presence of a professional sports team increases a city's seasonal flu deaths."
• "Recent toilet-paper hoarding was more prevalent among Americans than Europeans and more prevalent among the old than the young."

The Premier League had a trio of upsets on Sunday. One was mild. The other two were surprising. My Spurs whipped Manchester United 6 to 1 at Son and Kane both had a couple of goals, and the Frenchmen Aurier and Ndombele had a goal each. West Ham beat Leicester City early on Sunday, and Aston Villa demolished Liverpool 7 to 2 later in the day.

I know it's early in the season, but Everton sits atop the table, and Aston Villa is second. 

Random Notes from a Crank

An interesting article in The Washington Post relates that some GOP advisors are worried about losing the Senate: "Republicans Grow Nervous about Losing the Senate Amid Worries of Trump's Handling of the Coronavirus."

I've been watching the polling in Senate races for a while now because I am hopeful of the GOP losing a number of those races. The four most talked about are in North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. I am worried about Jones losing in Alabama because, well, it's Alabama. 

I hadn't heard much about the Kansas race (as the article details a bit), but that factor makes sense since the 2016 flipping of Kansas in a number of elections. As a native Iowan, I would love for Ernst to be booted out of office. And I would be extremely happy if Lindsey Graham and Moscow Mitch have to hit the bricks. But those are long shots.  

I've watched a number of Amazon series during the lockdown. 

The Expanse has been a scary, suspense-filled treat. In a lot of these sci-fi novels and television shows though they depict the world as being run by the United Nations, such as in The Expanse and Altered Carbon, which is a bit odd because in our current reality the UN is fairly ineffectual. Regardless, The Expanse has a number of interesting visual representations of the world after climate change. 

I recently finished Beyond the Loop, which is an eerie yet poignant TV series. 

Here are factoids and stats from May's "Harper's Index," which were compiled as of March 2020:

• Percentage of Americans who operate doors and sinks in public restrooms with paper towels to avoid germs: 65
• Who flush with their feet: 44
• Who hover over the toilet seat: 29
• Number of countries that are carbon-negative: 2
• Estimated number of Americans who spend at least three hours commuting each day: $4,300,000
• Percentage of Democrats who believe that their personal finances will improve over the next year: 60
• Of Republicans who do: 83
• Portion of Trump's 2019 tweets that were live responses to Fox New or Fox Business programs: 1/10
• Factor by which Americans go to the library more often than they go to the movies: 2
• Estimated number of dead-end streets in the world: 17,680,000
• Portion of those dead ends that are in the United States: 1/4

Random Notes from a Crank

I've been trying to catch up on my magazine reading, and the December issue of The Atlantic is quite good, an issue that is chocked full of interesting reads. 

I've thought about reading Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, and her short interview titled "Left Behind" in print is titled "The Places Where the Recession Never Ended" online and is quite illuminating. Since I live in a rural part of the Midwest, I tend to agree with a number of the contentions at the end of the interview, such as these areas tend to be the harbinger of the "old economy" and that the opioid epidemic is hitting rural areas hard. 

As pundits and well-seasoned writers are wont to do when examining the Republican Party, "How America Ends" looks at how the GOP under Moscow Don is targeting a shrinking demographic and how the party might be prone to doing all sorts of heinous crap to keep their hold and sustain their perception as "real Americans." 

Here are some factoids from the last two versions of the Harper's Index:

• Percentage of Uber riders who never tip: 60
• Who always tip: 1
• Estimated number of people who could go unaccounted for in the 2020 census because of an "increased climate of fear": 4,000,000
• Average effective tax rate, as a percentage of income, paid by the richest 400 households in the United States in 2018: 23
• By the poorest half of American households: 24
• Percentage by which owning a dog lowers one's risk of death: 24
• Percentage of American men who say they would not feel "very comfortable" with a woman as president: 51
• Of American women who say so: 41
• Percentage of Americans aged 13 to 38 who would be willing to post sponsored content to their social-media accounts: 86
• Number of pending patent applications for variations of the phrase "OK, Boomer": 6

In the online version of The Atlantic, Cohen penned a good piece about Romney's speech about voting yes for conviction: "In the Long Run, Romney Wins." I think he's right. He was the only GOP with guts to do what's right. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the October issue of The Atlantic there's a short article by Jeffrey Goldberg based on his interviews with former Secretary of Defense James Mattis: "The Man Who Couldn't Take It Anymore." Like the author, I wish Mattis would speak out more. 

The anonymous author who wrote an op-ed column a while back about the unhinged, racist, intellectually dubious, and easily influenced nature of Moscow Don has published a book: "Book by Anonymous Describes Trump as Cruel, Inept, and a Danger to the Nation." 

It's a narrative that should seriously concern any American citizen. In one of the early ¶s of the article, it paints a chilling but not surprising portrait comparing Moscow Don to "a twelve-year old in an air traffic control tower, pushing button of government indiscriminately, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway and the flight frantically diverting away from the airpot." 

I've compiled a bunch of metrics and stats from past Harper's Indexes dating all the way back from May:

• Factor by which users of marijuana edibles are more likely to require emergency care than marijuana smokers: 33
• Percentage of U.S. adults who admit to shopping while drunk: 26
• Average amount of those adults spend annually on purchases made while drunk: $736
• Estimated value of drunk shopping to the U.S. economy each year: $39,400,000,000
• Number of U.S. counties in which a full-time worker making minimum wage can afford a one-bedroom apartment: 22
• Percentage by which a same-sex couple is more likely to be denied a home loan than other couples: 73
• Estimated percentage of New York City police officers who have received tickets for speeding tickets for speeding and running red lights: 59
• Of New York City drivers in general: 36
• Percentage of Republican or Republican-leaning whites who are bothered by hearing a non-English language in public: 47
• Of Democratic or Democratic-leaning whites: 18
• Factor by which more migrants with criminal records are apprehended at the Canadian rather than the Mexican border: 3
• Percentage chance that a U.S. woman who is denied an abortion will be in poverty six months later: 61
• Factor by which more Americans died in school shootings than in combat last year: 3
• Rank of Candid among countries resettling the most refugees in 2018: 1
• Minimum number of years for which the United States previously held that distinction: 59
• Number of U.S. state that require permits for children's lemonade stands: 34
• Estimated number of active police officers who use racist, bigoted, or violent language on Facebook: 20
• Of retired police officers: 45
• Percentage by which the federal minimum wage is worth les today than it was in 1968: 31
• Number of years for which the federal minimum wage has remained unadjusted: 10
• Number of U.S. representatives and senators who are naturalized American citizens: 14
• Number of those who are Democrats: 14
• Number of think tanks in the United States: 1,872
• Factor by which this figure has increased since 1980: 2
• Percentage of American adults who think the Iraq War was not worth fighting: 62
• Of veterans: 64
• Portion of violent protest movements seeking regime change from 1900 to 2014 that were successful: 1/4
• Of nonviolent protest movements: 1/2
• Rank of Brazil among countries with the highest amount of annual forest depletion: 2
• Rank of Russia: 1
• Minimum number of Afghan civilians killed this year by the Afghan military and international forces: 577
• By the Taliban: 423
• Average number of times per week Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is mentioned on Fox News: 42
• On CNN: 14
• Number of states whose Supreme Court benches are all white: 24
• Number of those states in which at least a quarter of the population consists of people of color: 8
• Minimum number of U.S. universities that have offered courses related to the marijuana industry: 14
• Rank of subscription television services among the forty-six major U.S. industries in terms of customer satisfaction: 46
• Of breweries: 1

Some initial thoughts based on all that data...

Thank the Gods for beer. 

Prejudice against same-sex couples is quite alive. 

Arguments for a much higher minimum wage have some ammunition. 

As much as people want to talk about the "thin blue line," to think there are not problems with policing in this country is foolishness. The tickets for NYC cops is somewhat jejune but not an aberration. People in power can easily abuse that power. 

The GOP has become a nativist party that has become obsessed with painting Democrats as socialists. 

Legalized marijuana has its challenges.