People may be wondering how it’s possible that Americans support Trump and his policies. Maybe all we’re talking about is stupidity.
That’s the only conclusion I can draw from the words of Trump’s son Eric at left.
As Trump’s former lawyer Ty Cobb says at left, in addition to turning the United States into an autocratic regime, at the same time, Trump needs to alter history such that future generations don’t think he did anything wrong.
Yes, he has his hands full, but he’s assisted by hundreds of traitors in congress, and hundreds of millions of hateful morons in the U.S. electorate.
The stage is set for the full-scale use of the U.S. military against the citizens in states that voted against Trump, despite the fact that this is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
As we can see from what Trump told Fox News here, he’s mad as a hatter.
I recognize that the typical MAGA voter is disturbed as well, but insanity in the White House is not a sustainable way to govern a nation.
This concept here is asinine, but it would be a lot less so if wind turbine blades were curved as shown in the picture.
According to AI: Netherlands has introduced the “Wind Tree,” a vertical structure covered with hundreds of small, leaf-shaped turbines that generate electricity from even minimal wind. Unlike conventional wind turbines, these trees blend seamlessly into urban or park landscapes while producing renewable energy.
Every few months since I got into the renewable energy business 16 years ago, I’ve seen artists’ rendering of this idea. I agree that it’s attractive to the eye and to the imagination. I also think it would make a fabulous science project.
Yet it has no practical value. Bazillions of tiny moving parts that generate incredibly small electric currents can’t possibly make sense in the real world.
Regarding Trump’s competence, I suppose that if you want the United States to look like Turkey, Hungary, Russia, China, or any of the other totalitarian states, you have to admit that Trump is super-competent. His will is unaffected by any group of people in government, e.g., congress and the Supreme Court. Most important, it’s unaffected by our nation’s Constitution.
Moreover, as shown below, Trump is a master at using his position as U.S. president to enrich himself.
Some people are going to be impressed by that.
There’s a story behind the piece below, Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise, performed by Vladimir Horowitz, the pianist most people deem Chopin’s pre-eminent interpreter.
Frederic Chopin was born in 1810 near Warsaw, Poland, and was known as a child prodigy as a pianist and composer when he was six years old.
By the time he was nine he had studied under every piano instructor in Warsaw. It was common for these teachers to talk about young Frederic, some saying, “We need to break him of some of his terrible habits.” Fortunately, one said, “Here’s an idea. Since he plays far better than any of us, why don’t we just leave him alone?”
Russia had long ruled Poland, but in the 1820s, Russian rule grew more arbitrary, and secret societies were formed by Polish intellectuals in several cities to plot an insurrection. In November 1830, Polish troops in Warsaw rose in revolt.
Chopin had moved to Paris shortly after his 22nd birthday in 1832, where he would spend the rest of his life composing, teaching, and concertizing, but his love for his native land remained fierce.
But what could he do? Chopin was small and sickly, barely five feet tall, perhaps 90 pounds in weight. He certainly couldn’t be a physical part of an uprising, so he decided to inspire his native Poles with his compositions.
There are a few good examples of his works along these lines, but the Heroic polonaise stands by itself. When I hear it, especially performed by one of the greats, a single word comes to my mind: bravery.
Enjoy, and don’t be embarrassed if you have goosebumps on your arms and tears in your eyes.
Some of us are looking for a single, simple statement to encapsulate what is going so wrong in America today, and perhaps it relates to what Aristotle says at left here.
Even the MAGA folks think that what they’re doing is “right.” By this I mean white supremacy, mass deportation of immigrants (with or without due process), the rejection of science, and so forth.
Many of us have seen the illustration here, where a solar PV array is put into a geosynchronous orbit, and sends microwave energy to a collector on earth.
There is nothing theoretically impossible about the idea, and one good thing about it is that it increases the capacity factor (the ratio of actual electrical energy a power plant produces over a period to the energy it could have produced if it operated at its maximum continuous power output during that same period) from about 0.2 to 1.0, because the sun never “sets.”
The problem is the enormous cost of building, launching, and maintaining the entire apparatus. The price of electricity under such a scenario would cost thousands of times what it is today.
Trust me, Japan is not even considering this concept.
