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Evan Griswold's avatar

Just curious! What is the hourly death without the Trump factor?

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

Impossible question. It reminds me of a depressing quote from Philip Roth's The Human Stain, about "the stupendous decimation that is death sweeping us all away."

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Evan Griswold's avatar

Is Donald Trump a secret member of ZPG? Certainly looks like it.

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

ZPG for OTHER people. Trump himself acknowledges five children, and of course consumes for tens of thousands. For younger readers, ZPG, or Zero Population Growth, was a movement in the late 1960s aimed at reducing family size to replacement level. World population has more than doubled since then, from 3.5 billion people in 1967 to 8.2 billion today.

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

UPDATE: I have removed the preface to this story because that demonstration has passed. Here's the original preface: "I’m posting early again, so people can plan for tomorrow’s “No Kings” protests nationwide. You should be able to scroll down here and find a protest near you. It’s the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, and as one conservative columnist posted today, “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising.” Keep it legal, but make it loud."

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Rebecca Newman's avatar

Richard, thanks for another great article. I am passing along to many people. Respect! Rebecca

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Margaret Fleck's avatar

I keep remembering Koch's list of objectives from the 80s. The libertarian goals of no government, or as little government as possible. Some of it will be privatized. Some of it will create an every man for himself society. Some of it, I think, is to let people die. It's a very twisted system and I blame the inhumanity of corporations, primarily, along with the inability of most of the citizenry to resist their manipulation and control.

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Anders's avatar

For the non-US American please. Why, they already have a ton of it

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Anders's avatar

Ok I try. Since one of the founding myth is the Boston Tea party where Tea was thrown into the harbour with the slogan No taxation without representation it could be that pay less to no tax is the patriotic thing to do or something along those lines

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

It may have more to do with the myth of the rugged individual and the self-made man. It leads American billionaires to think that every cent they can get their hands on belongs to them by moral right, without regard for the roads, airways, schools, clean water systems, medical care, national defense forces, and so on that play a major role in making their fortunes possible.

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Anders's avatar

Jupp, makes sense. I made it its all mine.

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

It’s a mystery to most Americans, too. Greed plus sociopathic tendencies?

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Anders's avatar

Nothing to do with the funding myth of the tax revolution in Boston harbour?

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

Explain your thinking, please

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Dave's avatar

Truth.

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Chris Weber's avatar

So mind-boggling that, as a nation, we're allowing this to happen. I know the fear of him is real and legitimate, but what will it take to get his supporters to see the light and be brave enough to say, "no."

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

I don't know that. But I suspect a lot of them are alarmed by the simultaneous destruction of the democracy and the social safety net. Now we have to welcome them at anti-Trump protests. It's a moment for shared recognition of how billionaires are pitting us against each other to fatten their own bank accounts.

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Rich Zatorski's avatar

Hard hitting. Spot on. Very well done.

And the band played on …

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Richard Conniff on Nature's avatar

Thanks, Rich.

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