The End of American Democracy?
The Americans who voted against Donald Trump in the 2024 election and the vast majority of the citizens elsewhere around the world will read this quote from Steinbeck and hope it doesn’t apply to U.S. democracy.
Tagged with: End of American Democracy
Getting Serious about Renewable Energy in Texas
Here’s a This is a great example of something that I’ve been talking about for years: climate change is a global phenomenon, and making slow progress in decarbonizing the energy sector in a place like Texas will have an infinitesimally small effect on the local climate (even if the people of the state have the political will to make it happen, which they most assuredly do not). In particular, the hurricanes that are increasingly devastating to Texas generally form off the coast of West Africa, generated and strengthened by rising ocean temperatures.
Of course, I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, and any positive change is good, but I do want to add a dash of reason here.
As I told the emissary of Germany’s state department who asked me what his country could be doing better vis-a-vis renewable energy. After more than an hour of being peppered with essentially the same question, I finally responded, “In large measure, it doesn’t matter. This is a problem we either come together and solve as a global community, or we’re all going to suffer in ways that are completely unprecedented.”
Tagged with: Renewable Energy in Texas
Discussing Religion and Politics
I agree with the author of the meme here, and I believe that if we were to follow the course he suggests we’d be a lot less steamed about these issues than we are now.
Having said that, it appears that science is in the process of proving that our belief systems are wired into our brains, and that we ourselves have far less agency than we think we do in determining how we think and act.
Take me as an example. As readers know, I’m an atheist and a progressive. From my earliest memories at three years old, I’ve been an animal lover and a disbeliever in God. Mustn’t there be some basis for this in my genetic code?
In terms of experiences, I went to a private Quaker (pacifistic, non-violent) school, spent six years of college/graduate school studying Western philosophy, and had a business career that served clients in a dozen different countries. You could take 100 people with this make-up, and I doubt you’d find a single Trump supporter.
Now, do I understand the far right? Of course I do. I had the incredibly good fortune to have all this line up, starting with my birth in Philadelphia, and my adoption at age five months by two kind, intelligent, and honorable people. But it’s not hard to imagine having been born in Saudi Arabia, Paraguay, Mali, or Mississippi.
We all carry with us the idea that our basic personalities are self-determined, that we create our characteristics from our own choosing. I question that.
Tagged with: Discussing Religion and Politics
America’s Horrifying Transition
Dr. Gregg Bloche, a friend who teaches at Georgetown Law School, said on a Zoom call yesterday that the U.S. has transitioned from “a cognitive to a non-cognitive” mode of politics and voting.
What a fantastic phrase. It’s terrifying, of course, but it so accurately describes how it’s possible that a huge majority of Americans want to be led by a pathological liar, career criminal, and wanna-be dictator.
When I was a young boy, the parents of my little friends in my neighborhood in the Philadelphia suburbs weren’t rocket scientists, but they could (and did) read, and a person like Donald Trump would have carried less than 10% of the vote.
All that rationality and gentility has vanished in the blink of an eye.
What the Results of the 2024 Election Taught Us about Ourselves
Perhaps it’s easiest to identify what American voters do not value: truth vs. lies, knowledge vs. ignorance, rule of law, fair treatment of minority groups, environmental sustainability, and democracy.
It would be comforting to think that the outcome of this election was a one-off fluke, but all reason suggests the precise opposite. As Gen Z (and whatever follows it) comes to represent an ever-increasing portion of the electorate, we can only expect more selfishness, less literacy, more apathy, and a diminished capacity for critical thinking.
How Americans Voted, By Gender and Race
White folks voted for Trump, 56 – 42.
That’s quite a landslide, one that leaves zero doubt about our appetite for racism, lies, and treason.
Fron the standpoint of the environment, it says something else as well: we couldn’t care less.
Those Who Successfully Gutted the American Educational System Are Now Reaping the Rewards
We’re just now learning about the factors that put Trump back into the White House. In particular, too few voters are capable of understanding the issues, and, as a consequence, too few showed up at the polls.
Many people, me included, mistakenly supposed that the threat of a full-on fascist in the White House was going to bring voters out of the woodwork After all, do Americans really want to be led by someone who admires the world’s dictators and clearly wants to become one himself?
The answer is that most of them simply don’t care. Involvement in politics would require effort, e.g., taking a few minutes to look up words like “authoritarian,” and familiarizing themselves with the issues covered in Project 2025, a federal policy agenda and blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch, key components of which include:
• Opposing abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity.
• Targeting immigrant communities through mass deportations and raids, ending birthright citizenship, separating families, and dismantling our nation’s asylum system.
• Using federal law enforcement to target journalists and protestors.
• Censoring academic discussions about race, gender, and systemic oppression, in violation of the First Amendment, while cutting federal funding for schools with curricula that touch on these subjects.
• Ending America’s climate leadership on the international stage, preventing the global community from achieving climate goals necessary to maintain a livable planet.
Now that all this is clear, an important question arises: What about America’s future, given that our investment in educating our young people is under greater attack with each passing year? I know a young person who buys his beer at a convenience store whose Gen Z clerk was unaware that the United States had an election earlier this week. What’s that level of ignorance going to look like when it keeps increasing exponentially?
Is the World Laughing at the United States?
Are they laughing? In a word, no. Quite the contrary.
Most of the Earth’s population has historically counted on the U.S. to do the right thing when it comes to things like human rights and rule of law, and they take this quite seriously.
That’s why, when I interviewed a bunch of Swedes during Trump’s first term in the White House, they all agreed, “Trump may have 6% or 8% support in Sweden, but the vast majority of us simply feel sorry for you. If a fascist had come to power in Ecuador or Mali, we would have said, ‘Well, what did you expect?’ But the United States of America? No one ever thought it could ever happen there.”
Tagged with: Trump fascist
Who Should Pay for Environmental Damage?
When Americans went to the polls earlier this week, the idea expressed in the meme here went from a real possibility to a pipe dream.
On a related note, 54% of Americans aged 16–74 read below a 6th grade level, so the outcome of the election really should have come as a surprise to no one, and its tragic consequences are, in reality, exactly what this nation deserves.
Tagged with: environmental damage
Trump Won. Now What?
Now what? We can start by feeling sorry for many different groups of people, mostly here, but some abroad as well, who will experience terrible consequences of Trump’s re-election, either directly or indirectly.
Americans Directly Affected
Muslims
Women who may need abortions
Sick people covered under Obamacare
Immigrants and their young children escaping grave physical danger
Active duty military and their families
Those who work in industries aimed at decarbonizing our energy and transportation sectors, e.g. the 300K U.S. families whose weekly paychecks come from the expansion of solar energy
Those whose jobs derive from the CHIPS act and the Inflation Reduction Act
People of color
The working class whose taxes will increase to cover further handouts to the billionaires and huge corporations
LGTBQs
Those living in poverty
People living on Social Security
Consumers of products and services that are made affordable by migrant workers who pick fruits and vegetables, work in restaurants, etc.
Those concerned about climate change and other forms of environmental degradation due to slashed EPA regulation and an increase in the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels.
The growing number of parents and their children who can’t afford private schools
The future of America’s knowledge-based workforce, e.g., its engineers and physicians
Non-Americans Directly Affected:
Ukrainians, Taiwanese, and other people around the world who are under attack or threat of attack by Putin, Xi, and the growing list of authoritarians and war criminals
Europeans worried about what Putin is likely to go after once conquering Ukraine.
Indirectly Effected
Those who believe that America benefits greatly from its adherence to the rule of law, i.e., single set of laws that apply to everybody equally
People whose connection to all this is minor, but who are compassionate human beings who care about the well-being of others.
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Concerning this last group, I explained to my son when he was younger, “For you and me, involvement in politics is important, but not because it affects us personally. We’re not poor, Muslims, uneducated, black, gay, immigrants escaping danger, or women. We need to be connected to politics, but only because we care about other people and hate to see them suffer.”
Side Note – The Winners
To be fair, there are many groups whose stock just gained a great deal of ground:
Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who appeared to be headed toward expulsion from the U.S. Supreme Court
A large range of criminals who will benefit from the evisceration of the Justice Department
A few hundred insurrectionists now serving prison time
Trump’s high-level co-conspirators in his attempt to overthrow the U.S. government following the 2020 election loss
All would-be dictators around the globe who have renewed hope after seeing authoritarianism come to the most powerful country on Earth
The evangelical Christians, book-banners, and proponents of the Ten Commandments in classrooms
Fox News and other ultra-right-wing “news” sources
Corporate CEOs who will now be under less pressure to offer employees a living wage
Tagged with: Trump Won. Now What?
