This document should be in the Smithsonian. It should be preserved as part of the written history of American democracy. I can hear the spirit of Thomas Paine saying, "Well done." https://t.co/vSs4BpfBU4 — Paul Epps (@paulepps) October 13, 2024 Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Afghanistan
What the State of the Union Didn’t Say
The president entered office with a 1.4% inflation rate and spiked it to 7%. 30-year mortgages of 2.7% soared to 6.5% in less than two years. Eggs are $7 a dozen. A thin steak is $15 a pound. A sheet of plywood is $95. Gas averaged $2.39 a gallon when the president took office and even after draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve it is still $3.50 a gallon. In my state, California, gas has recently been over $5 a gallon. The price of natural gas has tripled in less than a year. In two years over 5 million foreign nationals poured into the United States—all illegally across a nonexistent border. The president said that he “lowered” inflation, energy prices and interest rates after sending them to astronomical levels and then seeing them momentarily taper off a bit. Like Nero bragging about rebuilding Circus Maximus after burning it down. He omitted… Read more →
U.S. Gun Deaths Per Capita
This hurts the US in the gun deaths per capita stats, the fact that mass murders in other countries are often carried out with bombs https://t.co/HcHykXTOk7 — Paul Epps (@paulepps) September 30, 2022 Read more →
We Are Led by Idiots
It’s hard to contemplate American public life in the 21st century and not arrive at the unhappy conclusion that we are led by idiots. The political class has lately produced an impressive string of debacles: the Afghanistan pullout, urban crime waves, easily foreseen inflation, mayhem at the southern border, a self-generated energy crisis, a pandemic response that wrought little good and vast ruin. Then there are the perennial national embarrassments: a mind-bogglingly expensive welfare state that doesn’t work, public schools that make kids dumber, universities that nurture destructive grievances and noxious ideologies, and a news media nobody trusts. — Barton Swaim Read more →
What You’re Seeing and Hearing Is Not Real?
The times that we’re living in right now are forcing lots of people on both sides of the aisle to look at a thing, or hear a thing, and be told that what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing is not real. And you can’t do that to people indefinitely and expect them not to push back somehow. You can’t tell people that the border is secure and then show them images of tens of thousands of people flooding over it. You can’t tell people that the evacuation of Afghanistan was a success and then show them people falling off of a plane. … And you can’t ask people who are watching a NASCAR race at home, who clearly hear the crowd yelling ‘F*** Joe Biden’ to pretend that what they’re really hearing is ‘Let’s Go Brandon.’ I think what’s happened is people have just become sick and tired of… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: Why is President Biden So Unpopular?
My fellow Americans – According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki (whom I would nail so hard that whoever could pull me out would be named King of England), the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for President Biden’s poor approval rating, which has fallen to a new low in recent polling. Point taken, but of course Biden and the Democrats campaigned on the pandemic being the fault of Trump and the Republicans, who failed to “follow the science.” And yet after nine months of glorious science-based leadership in Washington, here we are, no better off than before as far as I can see. Psaki also failed to mention the botch-up in Afghanistan, an unprecedented border crisis (including migrants coming in already infected with COVID), inflation, consecutive dismal job reports, and ongoing debt default brinksmanship. Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: Without Citing Any Evidence
My fellow Americans – I noticed during the Trump presidency that the press developed an affectation where they reported everything he said as “Trump said ‘blah blah blah,’ without citing any evidence.” [Emphasis is my own.] Why Trump was the only human being held to this standard was never clear to me, but I thought of it again this week and perhaps it’s time for a resurrection of “without citing any evidence.” For example, President Biden’s announcement of a victorious withdrawal from Afghanistan might have been better presented as “President Biden, without citing any evidence, called the American withdrawal from Afghanistan a success.” Or when the August jobs report was released, showing that the economy added a disappointing 235,000 jobs vs. an estimate of 720,000, to which the president responded “The Biden plan is working,” more meticulous reportage could have been “‘The Biden plan is working,’ said the president, without… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: Afghanistan Withdrawal a “Victory”?
My fellow Americans – President Biden has declared our withdrawal from Afghanistan a success. With all due respect, has this man lost his fucking mind? Imagine King George in 1783 declaring the British withdrawal from America a success. Afghanistan was our longest war — 20 years — but it’s not like we were fighting World War II over there. There had not been a US combat fatality in a year and a half until Biden got 13 soldiers blown up, left at least hundreds of Americans stranded with no way out of the country, created a humanitarian crisis affecting tens of millions of people, has our allies around the world pissing themselves, has turned America into a global laughingstock, and his response is that what happened was inevitable, despite his previous promises that it was not inevitable. As one president to another, I say to Mr. Biden that when you… Read more →
If Balboa Could Find the Pacific Ocean, Why Can’t You?
I mentioned in class today that 30 percent of Americans age 18 to 24 cannot find the Pacific Ocean on a map . . . (This was in the context of income diversity — or “income inequality,” take your pick — i.e., I can’t find the Pacific Ocean on a map but I’d like to be paid the same as a Harvard MBA.) Students absolutely could not believe this so I Googled the link to this National Geographic article. Not only was I proved correct on my Pacific Ocean assertion, 58 percent of respondents could not find Japan on a map, 65 percent couldn’t find France, 69 percent couldn’t find the United Kingdom, and 11 percent could not find the United States. The survey is a bit old now — it was taken in 2002 — but if anything, I’m sure the current situation is worse. If my kid could… Read more →
On This Day
On July 19, 1980, the Summer Olympics began in Moscow with dozens of nations boycotting because of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. Thirty-five years later, there’s still a war going on in Afghanistan, so you can see what a shrewd foreign policy move that was. Read more →
Mac Wilkins: What The Discus Can Teach You About Life
Deadspin has an excellent “as told to” story on former Olympic discus thrower Mac Wilkins (What The Discus Can Teach You About Life: Lessons From One Of America’s Greatest Throwers) Wilkins made four straight U.S. Olympic teams, winning a gold medal in 1976, a silver in 1984, and finishing fifth in 1988. He was also the first man to throw the discus more than 70 meters, and he held the world record for over two years, bettering his own mark three times between April 1976 and August 1978. Some excerpts: So one day I go out to train and I say, Oh, what the heck. Let’s just give it a little extra effort today. And I did, and I got better and it went farther. And I thought that was kind of fun. What if I could that again tomorrow? And so pretty soon, I’m hooked on, Can I do… Read more →
Yes We Can!
KABUL – Roadside bombs — the biggest killer of U.S. soldiers — claimed eight more American lives Tuesday, driving the U.S. death toll to a record level for the third time in four months as President Barack Obama nears a decision on a new strategy for the troubled war. — October deadliest month for US in Afghan war – Yahoo! News We know what you’re thinking, but this is not Obama’s fault. Afghanistan is someone else’s mess, so why don’t you grab a mop? . . . After all, [Obama] has a busy schedule, what with golf games and pitching the International Olympic Committee and date nights and Democratic fund-raisers and health care and the U.N. Security Council and Sunday morning talk shows and saving the planet from global warming and celebrating the dog’s birthday and defending himself against Fox News and all. — Best of the Web Today Read more →