My theory on the subject here is that Trump’s lies are so common and blatant that they do not damage the adoration that his supporters have for him. They are willing to justify his complete lack of honesty with malarkey like, “Oh, all politicians lie.”
Until you realize that he is a career criminal/conman, all this false equivalence makes perfect sense.
In healthcare, we have people who think they know better than the doctors and medical scientists.
In climate change, it’s arguably even more offensive. Here, we have the climate deniers who claim that the true cause of our warming temperatures is solar activity–or gravity–or God knows what else–and that it has nothing to do with the consumption of fossil fuels.
It’s just amazing that the people who have been applying the scientific method to get answers here for the last 40 years are so confused, especially given that the truth is so obvious to Trump loyalists.
It’s a question of who you are and how you define winning.
Suppose a) you’re filthy rich, b) Trump’s economic policies, e.g., tariffs, don’t send us into a tailspin, c) you couldn’t care less about the wellbeing of the common person or our country’s future as a competitor in global markets, d) you have the resources to avoid the consequences of environmental collapse, and e) you’re indifferent to American democracy, then it’s possible that, when 2028 rolls around, you’ll count yourself a winner.
If even a single piece of a – e isn’t true, you’ll wish you had done something to prevent Trump’s re-election in 2024.
The words of journalist Dan Rather here remind us of something happening here in the United States that doesn’t seem to be changing over time. Americans’ perceptions of Donald Trump fall into one of three categories:
He’s a vile criminal, and the thought of his leading this formerly great nation is nauseating.
He may not be a fine person, but his policies are so far superior to the Democrats’ that we need to overlook any of his imperfections.
God sent us Trump, an honest and strong person, to lead us away from the communist, woke sissies that would otherwise take over this nation.
Perhaps the most important criterion for determining if a certain group is a cult is as follows: Its leader is always right. In other words, if it appears to you that the leader made a mistake, it is you who are confused, ignorant, etc.
It’s good to see this concept gaining ground.
We have the resources to deal with each of our civilization’s woes: starvation, destitution, ignorance, baking temperatures, and so on. All we need is the political will.
Every year, almost exactly one million American citizens of Hispanic descent turn 18 and become eligible to vote.
When this figure first came to light, progressives cheered. After all, we wondered, won’t virtually every one of these young people embrace the liberal values that apply to them and their families? One would think that all Latin0 voters, almost to a person, would favor the party that supports:
• Humane treatment of immigrants, especially those with babies and young children, many of whom walked hundreds, some thousands of miles, in an attempt to cross our southern border
• Conformity to the domestic and international laws that pertain here (to which we continually thumb our collective noses)
• Continuation of DACA, many of whose recipients are now teaching our kids’ math and chemistry
• The people who pick our vegetables, clean our houses, watch our children, wash our restaurant dishes, all while contributing to our tax base
Trump’s plan is to command law enforcement to drive through our cities and towns, rounding up and detaining the undocumented, then deporting them to their countries of origin. How appealing does that sound?
OK, now check out the graphic above. How is it possible Trump steadily gained ground in the last two elections?
Please take a second to read this dialog between Stephen Colbert and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Is this what would have surprised Carl Sagan most?
I doubt it. From what I can remember, he had a low opinion of our civilization when it came to our intellectual curiosity, thirst for truth, and demand for evidence to support our beliefs.
Of course, things have gotten much worse in the nearly 30 years since he left us, but I don’t think that would have surprised him either.
MLK’s famous quote at left and that from lesser-known Pittsburgh sportswriter Harry Psaros (below) seem to be saying essentially the same thing, i.e., that small but steady improvements are possible, and that they’re the best we can hope for.
Before Donald Trump was reelected and replaced seasoned, highly respected individuals in the highest levels of the U.S. federal government with grossly unqualified lackeys, I might have believed this.
Here at 2GreenEnergy we’ve discussed the externalities of fossil fuel consumption hundreds of times since our inception in 2009. An externality is a term in economics, meaning the costs associated with transactions that are shifted off to unwary third parties.
Here is a good example: currently, the oil industry sells gasoline and diesel to be used in vehicles with internal combustion vehicles. Yet it’s not the oil companies, but rather the entirety of Earth’s population, that absorbs the costs of the damage to our lungs, air pollution, global warming, etc.
If you had children who coughed 365 days per year, or you had air duct filters that needed to be changed every two weeks because they were blackened by coal dust, you’d be looking for a solution here, and that solution would involve, at a minimum, having the coal companies reimbursing your costs.
