MIT linguistics professor emeritus Noam Chomsky belongs in the same class as Bertrand Russell: a small group of extremely intelligent people whose contribution to society is a blend of a penetrating understanding of the world, married with a profoundly humanistic philosophy.
Really?
Where does the energy come from to spin the resort?
Someone thinks they’ll get more energy out than they put in?
I’m reminded of a business plan for generating electricity using hydrokinetics I reviewed long ago, whose author told me, “Think of it as a river in a box.”
I tried to explain that he could not get more energy out of the box than he put into it to get the water moving, and therefore this was theoretically impossible, but he wasn’t buying it. I told him I had something burning in the kitchen as an excuse to politely end the call.
Ancient Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes made a good point here, and it would be easy to ascribe this as an explanation of the support of Donald Trump.
Giving the matter a little thought, however, we see that Americans’ IQs haven’t fallen over the last 10 years. The answer must be found elsewhere.
My theory is that hate and stupidity have the capacity to lie dormant over vast expanses of time, only to be awakened by some external circumstance. Here we have 70 million people who were very quiet, until Trump arrived and gave them permission to express their feelings of white supremacy, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, the rejection of science, etc.
Can we put the evil genie back in the bottle? We’re about to find out.
The Union of Concerned Scientists writes: Will hydrogen be a climate solution? Not if fossil fuel interests get their way. With billions of taxpayer dollars set to flow, the Biden administration must set rigorous hydrogen standards to defend against a perpetuation of fossil fuel industry harms.
The meme here reminds me of all the people who say, of the Democrats’ platform, “It’s not enough to say you’re not Trump and offer no further benefits.” To which I’ve always replied, “I’m not so sure of that.”
In the case of Biden, if you’re paying attention and taking in impartial reporting, you know that he really is accomplishing a great deal on behalf of the American people. But even if that weren’t the case, he isn’t a criminal sociopath who openly admits that he plans to subvert our democracy if reelected.
Here’s a conversation with some readers:
From National Public Radio:
The federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump is coming into sharper focus, as prosecutors assert he is responsible for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and offer new clues about how they intend to prove it.
The case set for trial in Washington, D.C., in March accuses Trump of leading a conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election and deprive millions of voters from having their ballots count. More than 140 law enforcement officers suffered injuries after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, disrupting the peaceful transfer of power. (more…)
As all politicians know, language is a powerful thing, and there is no law that says that the meaning of words can’t be twisted so as to favor a certain person, party, etc.
Aristotle wrote his book “On Rhetoric” on the art of persuasion, somewhere during the 4th century BCE. We’ve been at this for a long time.
When the phrase “fake news” was coined soon after Trump was elected in 2016, it originally applied to the torrent of lies that were spewing forth from the president. Unfortunately, Trump was able to subvert this to mean the precise opposite, i.e., everything that was coming from the mainstream media.
As expressed in the meme here, Republicans have redefined the word “radical” to apply to everyone with even moderately progressive ideas: common-sense gun laws, a woman’s right to an abortion, quality public education, etc.
Of the many things that make another Trump presidency most dangerous is the fact that he’s completely open about his intention to use the justice system to assemble an authoritarian nation in which rules with an iron fist.
Where most people around the world are terrified of this scenario, some welcome it, and demand that it be put into place.
I wonder where I am on the list of “vermin” to be “rooted out.”
The ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation “wants you to join the fight for free and fair elections by completing our National Survey on Election Fraud.”
Personally, I’m unconcerned, for a great number of reasons, including:
• Each of 60+ courts that heard claims surrounding the 2020 election found no evidence of significant voter fraud.
• Fox News publicly apologized for lying to its viewers for spreading the “Big Lie,” that the election was rigged.
• In a text to his chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump acknowledged that he lost the election.
• Two different grand juries were presented sufficient evidence to recommend indictments against Trump on charges that he attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election.
Of course, we have to expect that this will never end. Fifty years from now, decades after Trump is convicted on these charges and has been released from prison, there will still be hate groups on the lunatic fringe like the Heritage Foundation continuing to make baseless claims about the 2020 election.
