A key tactic employed by the Donald Trump / Elon Musk duo is to inflict so much damage to our nation and the rest of the world that individual citizens like you and me are paralyzed by the sheer velocity with which all this is coming at us.
The closing of USAID is just one of dozens of pieces of destruction, but, as shown at left, it’s a mighty one.
One might think that alerting American citizens to impending life-threatening weather catastrophes would be something that would survive the “great purge” of the current administration. As shown at left, the ROI numbers are very strong, but, sorry, no.
The U.S. government provides real value to Americans, but about half the country doesn’t seem to care.
The meme here is from a group called the “Power of Positivity.”
As for me, I like to see a mechanism that suggests that “everything will work out in the end.”
Coincidentally, an old friend wrote me earlier today about my association with the Turimiquire Foundation as follows:
This is one of the few things I’ve read about recently that makes me hopeful for meaningful global change. The founder of this organization and the people who are providing these services to Venezuelan women are to be commended on doing such selfless and important work. It’s truly impressive.
The fact that the organization is so efficient in getting the donated dollars to the target population is nice to see as well.
I found the Durian fruit project also to be fascinating. I had never heard of this plant before and the characteristics it displays makes it ideal as a potential tool to mitigate deforestation, global warming and poverty.
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Now that’s what I call a mechanism.
The cartoon here makes an important point, albeit in a kind of tongue-in-cheek manner.
Conservatives tend to have seizures when schools present materials to the effect that our society isn’t perfect in terms of things like social justice and environmental sustainability.
And right now, with Elon Musk at the helm, it appears that the federal government will soon disconnect itself entirely from public education.
The meme here came from a reader who makes an excellent point.
As a country, we don’t seem to be able to get rid of the notion that our country should be run as if it were a business. Obviously, no one likes bloat and waste, but anyone with any sense can see that the purpose of government is to support its citizens, not to make a profit.
Here’s a short TikTok video that I highly recommend, explaining how and why Americans are particularly weak in critical thinking and in challenging their beliefs.
True, the idea that Steve Bannon has something of value to offer, even to his own party, seems a bit strange.
It was established long ago that the MAGA base will support whatever Trump tells them to, even if it’s a matter of their own life and death. If you keep those goddamned immigrants out of my country, I’ll happily get behind the end of Medicaid and let cancer tear my spine into pieces as I pray to die if you can just get rid of the Mexicans!
The fact that the president’s policies make poor people poorer so as to further enrich his billionaire friends means absolutely zero.
This level of stupidity didn’t exist until recently.
I was on a Zoom call with a few smart friends earlier today, when one of them outlined J.D. Vance’s viewpoint on Christianity. Apparently, it’s a set of concentric rings with oneself at the center, followed one’s family in the second ring, the United States and other groups to which one belongs in the third, and the upstanding members of the human race in the fourth. Nowhere do immigrants or other needy people appear at all.
My friend went on to describe this as “bizarre,” but is there anything strange or weird about it at all? It may be sickening, but it’s commonplace among Christians–at least among American Christians of the 21st Century.
Moreover, when I hear stupidity and cruelty like this coming out of the mouth of people like Vance, I often wonder if the speaker truly believes what he’s saying, or if this is a statement crafted to appeal to the morons who form the majority of his audience.
Here’s a brief conversation between me and my colleague Gary Tulie in Buckinghamshire, England (pictured) that I hope readers find interesting. Gary has been a huge supporter of 2GreenEnergy since its launch 16 years ago, and contributed an entire chapter to my fourth book on environmental sustainability: “Bullish on Renewable Energy.”
Gary:
I think Trump is going to encounter serious problems with his tariffs. Fair enough to use sanctions and tariffs on a rogue regime to encourage them to respect human rights and international law, but impose tariffs on everyone? As the US found out last time, they first reciprocate, then do business with each other rather than the US. And in the case of Canada, the people are so angry they are actively boycotting US products and choosing not to visit the US.
Europe meanwhile is increasingly seeing the US as an unreliable ally and whilst Europe is increasing defense spending in view of the Russian threat, they are now far more likely to buy European equipment rather than typically more expensive US equipment which often is no better than the European equivalents. Tariffs in short will likely significantly reduce the US share of international business, drive trading partners to set up protocols that do not use the US dollar (making US borrowing more expensive) and simultaneously creating abrupt interruptions to US aid which admittedly needs an audit to ensure effectiveness. This weakens US soft power giving an opening for China, India, the EU etc. to become relatively more influential.
As I read recently there is a fundamental difference in mentality. US emphasises freedom to whereas Europe emphasises freedom from e.g. freedom from fear of guns, freedom from being exposed to hate speech, untested chemicals, etc.
Craig:
Makes sense. One (just one) of Trump’s ugliest characteristics is his complete lack of self-awareness and interest in listening to others.
This “freedom to/freedom from” duality has not hurt us too much until now, with Trump in the mix.
Gary:
Pretty sure some of the things that Trump has said would have got him in hot water this side of the Atlantic – slander, libel, hate speech and the like resulting in civil court cases, injunctions, and very possibly criminal cases which would have been heard promptly without fear or favour by an independent judiciary not beholden to any political party, and which is expected to display political neutrality interpreting written and case law to decide cases.
Craig:
Yes, that’s the scariest part of Trump; he seems to have been able to avoid being held accountable for outright criminal behavior, and I’m sure that wouldn’t fly in your part of the world.
Gary:
I believe he was quite shocked in I think it was The Netherlands to be asked some very searching direct questions with zero deference. Similar happened with the BBC when he tried refusing to answer a BBC reporter’s questions expecting the deference he has come to expect in the US, and all the other European journalists refused to ask any further questions.
I just had a conversation with a building contractor who specializes in eco-friendly residential improvements–in a part of the world where such a specialty is a big deal: Santa Barbara, California.
This was a great opportunity to ask questions about certain home construction technologies that seemed to have great promise 10 or 15 years ago, but for some reason never took off. Among these is building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPV. As shown in the photo above, it isn’t on the roof; it is the roof.
The fellow gave me two reason for the slow adoption (failure?) of BIPV:
1) It’s very brittle, which makes roof repairs very difficult without cracking other panels, and
2) The carbon footprint associated with making BIPV is still very high.
Interesting stuff.
