The Rise of Interracial Marriages

Here's one of the biggest statistical changes in American opinion: Approval of interracial marriage in the U.S. is at a new high of 94%, according to Gallup polling.

Why it matters: When Gallup first asked the question in 1958, just 4% of Americans approved of interracial couples.

That approval rating is sky-high no matter how you slice the data:

• Age: 98% of 18- to 29-year-olds approve; 97%, 30–49; 91%, 50+
• Race: 96% of non-white Americans; 93%, white
• Region: 94%, East; 93%, Midwest; 93%, South; 97%, West

The prevalence of intermarriage has also increased.Back in 1967, just 3% of married couples were interracial. Now it's 20%, according to Pew Research Center.

The big picture: There are many reasons contributing to the rise of interracial dating and marriages in the U.S., The Guardian reports:

1. Acceptance of interracial couples has steadily grown — though unique challenges and stressors for these couples still exist. Many interracial couples in the U.S. are feeling anxiety, "with heated public debate on issues involving racial justice, immigration, and even direct attacks on minority groups," CBS News "Sunday Morning" reported.
2. America is increasingly diverse — and is projected to have a majority minority population by 2045, increasing the diversity of potential romantic partners.
3. Younger Americans are more educated than ever. There's a higher rate of interracial marriage among those with more education, studies show.

The bottom line: 55 years after the legalization of interracial marriage, Americans nearly unanimously approve of love across races.

Future of Religion in USA

Since the 1990s, large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of U.S. adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” This accelerating trend is reshaping the U.S. religious landscape, leading many people to wonder what the future of religion in America might look like.

What if Christians keep leaving religion at the same rate observed in recent years? What if the pace of religious switching continues to accelerate? What if switching were to stop, but other demographic trends – such as migration, births and deaths – were to continue at current rates? To help answer such questions, Pew Research Center has modeled several hypothetical scenarios describing how the U.S. religious landscape might change over the next half century.

The Center estimates that in 2020, about 64% of Americans, including children, were Christian. People who are religiously unaffiliated, sometimes called religious “nones,” accounted for 30% of the U.S. population. Adherents of all other religions – including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists – totaled about 6%

Depending on whether religious switching continues at recent rates, speeds up or stops entirely, the projections show Christians of all ages shrinking from 64% to between a little more than half (54%) and just above one-third (35%) of all Americans by 2070. Over that same period, “nones” would rise from the current 30% to somewhere between 34% and 52% of the U.S. population.  READ MORE...

911: Two Decades Later

Americans watched in horror as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 20 years later, they watched in sorrow as the nation’s military mission in Afghanistan – which began less than a month after 9/11 – came to a bloody and chaotic conclusion.

The enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear: An overwhelming share of Americans who are old enough to recall the day remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Yet an ever-growing number of Americans have no personal memory of that day, either because they were too young or not yet born.

A review of U.S. public opinion in the two decades since 9/11 reveals how a badly shaken nation came together, briefly, in a spirit of sadness and patriotism; how the public initially rallied behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, though support waned over time; and how Americans viewed the threat of terrorism at home and the steps the government took to combat it.

As the country comes to grips with the tumultuous exit of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, the departure has raised long-term questions about U.S. foreign policy and America’s place in the world. Yet the public’s initial judgments on that mission are clear: A majority endorses the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, even as it criticizes the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. 

And after a war that cost thousands of lives – including more than 2,000 American service members – and trillions of dollars in military spending, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that 69% of U.S. adults say the United States has mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan.  READ MORE...

Meaning of Life

After Pew Research Center published its findings about what makes life meaningful in 17 developed economies, the answers from Korea startled many.

Korea was abuzz over the weekend about the results of a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in spring about what makes life "meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying" in 17 developed economies.

The findings came out on Nov. 18, and the answers from Korea were startling. It was the only country where "material well-being" was given as the top source of life's meaning. In fourteen other countries the first choice was family.

Predictably, the news prompted much handwringing across Korea's ideological spectrum as proof of the country's decay, but for different reasons. "Korea is the only country like this," wrote musician and prominent cultural critic Sohn Yisang on Facebook, implying that too many Koreans are focused on "don 돈" (money), as he translated "material well-being".

The conservative daily Chosun Ilbo blamed policymakers in the current center-left government for turning Koreans this way: "in the last few years this country's citizens went through experiences that shook the very foundation of how happiness is understood."

The paper obviously wants to argue that the out-of-control price of real estate has made "people who can't afford to buy an apartment even by scraping together everything they've got...unhappy because they hear how other people are getting manifold richer through stock or apartment or cryptocurrency purchases."

I don't really see a clear connection between what the Chosun Ilbo is saying and the Pew survey, but whichever way one interprets this survey result, there is an agreement: the choice of material well-being as the top source of meaning in life speaks to a problem in Korea.  READ MORE...

The Debate Continues

Americans have complicated feelings about their relationship with big technology companies. While they have appreciated the impact of technology over recent decades and rely on these companies’ products to communicate, shop and get news, many have also grown critical of the industry and have expressed concerns about the executives who run them.

This has become a particularly pointed issue in politics – with critics accusing tech firms of political bias and stifling open discussion. Amid these concerns, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June finds that roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults say it is very (37%) or somewhat (36%) likely that social media sites intentionally censor political viewpoints that they find objectionable. Just 25% believe this is not likely the case.

Majorities in both major parties believe censorship is likely occurring, but this belief is especially common – and growing – among Republicans. Nine-in-ten Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party say it’s at least somewhat likely that social media platforms censor political viewpoints they find objectionable, up slightly from 85% in 2018, when the Center last asked this question.

At the same time, the idea that major technology companies back liberal views over conservative ones is far more widespread among Republicans. Today, 69% of Republicans and Republican leaners say major technology companies generally support the views of liberals over conservatives, compared with 25% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. Again, these sentiments among Republicans have risen slightly over the past two years.  

The Day Before Thanksgiving and All Is Not Well

We refer to our country as AMERICA and to its citizens as AMERICANS and while that is partially true, it is also wrong because being an AMERICAN refers to both the North, Central and South America continents...  North America is the United States and Canada.  Then we have Central America, and last but not least is South America all of whom are technically considered to be AMERICANS...

Is it not a tad ARROGANT to think of US citizens as the only AMERICANS or is it because we are a tad ignorant and don't know our history as well as we thought we did when graduating from high school?

AND...  now we are at the day before Thanksgiving and we are going to over eat and over indulge in alcohol and in those states where marijuana is legal we are going to over indulge in that as well, without the slightest consideration for the history of the holiday for the most part.

US American citizens care more about what their country can do for them rather than caring about what they can do for their country...  The more we have social programs the less that our citizens do for their country and the more we expect the wealthy to pay for our THANKSGIVING DINNERS....  which is actually a metaphorical statement as to what is happening in the US of A.

AND...  as a senior citizen...  one could say that I don't much care because of what is going to happen to you alone because by then I will be dead...  but, the more we expect our country through the wealthy to do for us, the WEAKER we as a people become.  Not weaker in terms of money or technology or healthcare but weaker MENTALLY and that MENTAL WEAKNESS will start to erode and lessen our LOYALTY to the country that gave us all we have.

ALL IS NOT WELL IN THE US of A not because we do not have the natural resources, the technology, the innovations, the freedoms, and the WEALTH but because we are losing sight of our EDUCATION and KNOWLEDGE and will soon lose our freedoms because of our bliss and military weaknesses.

• CHINA has the largest military in the world today...   the USA is second...
• INDIA has the next largest military and then there is
• NORTH KOREA...
• RUSSIA is in there somewhere but because it is no longer the USSR it is much smaller and then there is the
• MIDDLE EAST and all the rag heads in that area as US American military personnel calls them

AND...  while we think our economy is the largest in the land, we have been fooled again but our insightful leaders and the media they control because in terms of PURCHASING POWER PARITY, the largest economy in the land is now CHINA...

Please pass me another joint to have with my beer or wine or alcohol as the combination is mind blowing...  as I have been told...  and, after we finish our Thanksgiving Meal, lets ride to a fast food and get us a burger...  or, maybe some ice cream...

AND...  if that isn't enough...  check our where the USA ranks globally in terms of education K-12 and it will surprise you that we are number 15th.

AND...  if you really want another surprise and cannot wait for CHRISTMAS do a google search my friends on the FREEST COUNTRIES in the world and you will see that the USA is no longer at the top...  and yet, we are supposedly the ones who have all these freedoms...  well...  guess again...  your liberal government has gradually taken them away from you...  but go ahead and enjoy your thanksgiving...

Check out the CATO INSTITUTE and the PEW RESEARCH CENTER and articles that have been published in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and USA TODAY and US NEWS and WORLD REPORT if you think my words are deceiving...  and, find out for yourself...  the state our States are in while we over eat, over drink, and get chilled out on marijuana...  the more we give US citizens in the way of social programs, the more the lull them to sleep in beds of ignorance.

DEMOCRATS AND CHRISTIANITY

ACCORDING TO THE PEW RESEARCH CENTER...

Religious beliefs among Democrats:

• 69%        Buddhist
• 44%        Catholic
• 28%        Evangelical
• 61%        Hindu
• 80%        Black Protestants
• 18%        Jehovah's Witness
• 64%        Jewish
• 40%        Mainline Protestant
• 19%        Mormon
• 62%        Muslim
• 44%        Orthodox Christian
• 54%        Unaffiliated

TO REVIEW CHART FOR YOUSELF, CLICK HERE...

Why am I posting this data?

Because,

our new Supreme Court Justice Nominee, Amy Barrett, is a CATHOLIC with 7 children, 2 of which are adopted, 1 has Down Syndrome...

AND,

I am worried that our DEMOCRATIC SENATORS will treat her worse than they treated Bret Kavanaugh, if that is even possible...

YOU DECIDE FOR YOURSELF...  SEE BELOW...

Alex Seitz-Wald (NBC) on September 26, 2020 wrote:
WASHINGTON — Democrats quickly coalesced around opposition to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, painting the nominee as a threat to policies that Democrats favor.

One Democratic senator — Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee — said he would not meet with Barrett, as is customary for members of the committee, in protest of Trump’s decision to rush ahead with the nomination so close to an election.

“I refuse to treat this process as legitimate and will not meet with Judge Barrett,” Blumenthal said in a statement.

Recent Supreme Court nominations have become increasingly partisan, and the decision by Republican leaders to press ahead with replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg only weeks before a presidential election is likely to make the process more contentious.


Meredith Deliso (ABC) on September 26, 2020 wrote:
Republican and Democratic leaders reacted largely along party lines to President Donald Trump's nomination on Saturday of a conservative federal judge to fill the seat left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Overwhelmingly, Republicans called Amy Coney Barrett a well-qualified candidate and pushed for a confirmation in the upcoming weeks. Democrats continued to criticize the timing, with some outright saying they wouldn't meet with the nominee...

Former Vice President Joe Biden, however, criticized Trump for moving ahead with the nomination so close to Election Day.

"The Senate should not act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress," he said in a statement.

His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said that the next president must select the next justice.

"With the next Supreme Court Justice set to determine the fate of protections for those with preexisting health conditions, and reproductive health options, I will continue to fight on behalf of the people and strongly oppose the president's nomination," Harris said in a statement.

Gregory Krieg (CNN) on September 26, 2020 wrote:
(CNN)Democrats on Saturday night launched their case against federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, saying support for her confirmation was equivalent to a vote to end the Affordable Care Act.

In a rush of statements following Barrett's Rose Garden introduction, top Democrats put the fate of the law -- and its popular protections for patients with pre-existing conditions -- front and center. They also made frequent reference to the coronavirus pandemic, and the chaos that could arise from stripping health insurance options from millions of Americans in its midst.

From the Democratic presidential ticket on down, criticism of Barrett repeatedly circled back to what has been a political winner for the party: health care -- and the backlash to Republican efforts to dismantle the ACA, former President Barack Obama's signature policy achievement.

"President Trump has been trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act for four years. Republicans have been trying to end it for a decade. Twice, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional," Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Obama's vice president, said in a statement. "But even now, in the midst of a global health pandemic, the Trump Administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the entire law, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions."