Most Americans’ perceptions of Texas are fairly negative, insofar as the state is known for Big Oil, cruelty to immigrants, and its status as the death penalty capital of the United States.

But what about Austin, the south’s Mecca of live music and one of our nation’s most important points of the development of cutting-edge technology?

At left are the words of American science and environmental journalist Andrew Revkin, who has written on a wide range of subjects including the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, sustainable development, climate change, and the changing environment around the North Pole.

If I had the slightest reason to be in Austin a few days from now, it would be a great honor to be in this man’s presence.

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Re: Trump’s action here, a reader remarks:

Same as his first term following Obama. Just reverse everything good or bad to eliminate any legacy of their time as President. It is also important that the opposing political party’s successes be forgotten so they can’t score favorably in future elections.

There is clearly a lot of truth here.

I would only add that there is also a motivation to excite the far-right-wing, especially the anti-intellectual MAGA crowd.  Promote white nationalism.  Pardon violent pro-Trump criminals.  Punish the immigrants.  Destroy the environment and bake the planet.  Kill public education.  Jettison medical science.

In any case, this is a tragedy for 99+% of Americans, and less directly, for all the world’s people and its other life forms.   The United States is led by a man whose only concern is his own wealth and power, who is completely happy to inflict suffering on his country’s people if doing so serves his own ends.

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A reader just sent me a note to the effect that his dentist has Fox News broadcasting into his waiting room, and that his hygienist asked if he wanted the volume turned up or down.

I had to laugh.  When my wife and I owned a horse-breeding ranch that required a nonstop supply of plumbing parts whose local supplier forced its customers to watch Fox New in its checkout queue I stopped buying from them. If I wouldn’t buy PVC piping from these idiots, do you think I want to have my teeth worked on by the same type of moron?

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I seriously doubt that any significant percentage of the MAGA base will ever recognize that they got screwed by Trump’s policies.

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The groups listed at left are certainly under pressure at this point.

But let’s not forget about everybody living on a warming planet who may not have the wherewithal to pack up and leave their homelands that are becoming uninhabitable.

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The environmental action group One5c.com points out that Trump’s efforts to trash our planet so as to benefit the fossil fuel industry are often unsuccessful. They write:

The good news is that climate and public health advocates have been keeping a close eye on things, including moves that can be challenged in court. During Trump’s first term, states and environmental groups filed hundreds of lawsuits against the administration, and the vast majority were successful, including a suit that spurred the courts to strike down a Trump policy called the Affordable Clean Energy rule that would have increased carbon pollution at many coal-fired power plants.

Another piece of good news is that progressives, by their very nature, are tenacious; we tend not to give up in tough times like these.

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Does anyone think the people who re-elected Donald Trump could possibly give a damn about his ripping off his non-profit that purportedly fought against childhood cancer?

This is part of his very DNA, and his supporters rejoice in it.

With great exuberance, a friend told me, “He always wins!”

Two points:

Not sure that means much to decent people.

Undefeated people always win…until they lose.

 

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Shakespeare wrote about “the quality of mercy.”

Here in the 21st Century America under Donald Trump, it might just cost you your U.S. citizenship.

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There is a vast difference between the demographic of “working families” and the uber-wealthy, the two groups that re-elected Trump.  In particular:

Working families tend to be poorly educated, a phenomenon that’s only getting worse with each passing year.   Too many of them are ill-equipped intellectually to understand that they’re supporting a criminal conman.

Rich families are well-educated, making them smart enough to know that Trump will make sure his wealthy donors get even richer.  But sadly, most of them couldn’t care less about anyone but themselves.

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If I were to show this to a science classroom of high school students who have B-or-better grades, the majority of them would understand instantly that this is just one example of the onslaught of misinformation that is circulating around the Internet.  Solar PV generates electricity by absorbing photons, not by letting them pass through.

Legitimate question: Who profits from a scientifically illiterate population?

 

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