Right-Wing / Libertarian Think-Tanks
I interviewed the spokesman for the CATO Institute for my third book, Renewable Energy — Following the Money, and I have to say that it was a profound experience. Here’s a group whose only reason for being is its attempt to prevent the U.S. government from helping Americans lead better, healthier, and longer lives.
As one can expect, the lines of argumentation were so ludicrous it was hard for me to believe I just heard those words uttered by a grown man.
My favorite: climate change won’t inflict any real damage for at least another 50 years, so there is no reason to take action until then.
My response: “Suppose you’re a smoker, and your doctor showed you your chest X-ray, pointing to a tumor on one of your lungs. Then he says, ‘This cancer won’t kill you for at least five years, so it would be a good idea to quit smoking five years from now.’ I don’t find your reasoning any better than this.”
There are many reasons that decent and reasonably intelligent people don’t watch Fox News, and one of them is shown at left. No one with the IQ of a stalk of celery would even consider accepting “news” that consists of what some garden-variety Trump supporter thinks is “probably” happening, or has a particular “hunch” about.
Years from now, when the entire legal mess surrounding the coup attempt is behind us, we’ll look back and realize something quite warming and satisfactory about a few top-level government officials: they were incorruptible.
We see all the handwringing surrounding the FBI on Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago. Proponents of justice and honor hope this is the beginning of the end for the treasonous former president, and the MAGA folks are screaming about the political weaponization of the DoJ.
Anyone could have predicted that the Fox News / MAGA crowd would have lost its mind about the FBI’s executing a search warrant on the former president’s home in Florida. But here’s a question: doesn’t it matter what the evidence is?
American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, and cultural critic Wendell Berry is often quoted nowadays for his unflagging optimism and his fierce confidence in the true goodness of humankind.
A reader sent me this, a guy who believes the Big Lie, that climate change is a hoax, and that Bill Gates’ goal is the enslavement of all humankind.
In a great number of respects, mid-Century “Bucky” Fuller was correct in what he said here. The Iron Age didn’t win out over the Bronze Age because of humankind’s resentment of bronze, nor did the Information Age come along because we got tired of the cheap cost of manufacturing massive quantities of stuff that was enabled by the Industrial Revolution.
This translates as: Ants rely for their physiological health on food variety. Please take care of biodiversity. The sign reads: I’m hungry. Please plant flowers. 
