Advice to Rednecks Everywhere
In response to the reader who sent me this, here’s a suggestion: leave us alone. We don’t need some Trump supporter telling us how to live our lives.
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Marketing Gome Awry
Flicking on the TV a minute or so before “Jeopardy,” I came across an ad for a home air filter called “The Barnacle.”
Having spent essentially my entire adult life dedicated to the task of making the world fall in love with my clients’ brands, I had one primary principal: associate that brand with something that is already well-known and liked in the prospect’s mind.
Of course, the average American’s vocabulary is a fraction of what it was 30 years ago, but really? The Barnacle? A parasite? An invasive species?
From the AI summary: Barnacles need to be removed from ships because they increase drag, which reduces fuel efficiency by up to 40%, increase pollution, and can eventually damage the hull. They are a major source of biofouling that slows ships down, costing billions of dollars annually, notes National Defense Magazine and NOAA. Barnacles also pose a risk to marine life, such as sea turtles, by adding weight, impeding movement, or even causing infection from burrowing species
I wish I had been in the boardroom when this subject was under discussion. Did someone suggest “The Disease?” “The Plague?” “The Cancer?”
Will Rich People Flee from NYC?
Of course. Stuff like this happens all the time.
The landslide election of a liberal mayor in America’s biggest city, with the country’s most sophisticated people, is bound to cause a calamity. New York City is the nation’s #1 economy, whose metro area’s GDP is north of $2 trillion, and it’s going to see some of the nation’s wealthiest people move to places like Kansas.
To be sure, the folks who run the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and entertainment, including film and television, are headed elsewhere.
As one billionaire told me, “Woke people make me puke. I’ve never explored this, but I have a feeling that real core competency is growing wheat. Got my fingers crossed, hoping for plenty of rain.”
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Turning America into a War Zone
As part of our modern lives, most Americans have been able to visit our nation’s major cities. We’ve been to places like Chicago, Los Angeles, and even much smaller Portland, Oregon–urban areas that the Trump administration has targeted with federal troops, ostensibly to stop crime and halt the flow of drugs.
As you look at this video, ask yourself: Are the people pictured behind the armored tank selling fentanyl, or are they peacefully protesting?
Is this what we want from the country of ours that used to be the land of the free?
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Is There Any Value in Education? Some Viewpoints on the Subject May Surprise You
All literate English-speaking people have a great deal of respect for Isaac Asimov, but it’s hard to understand his and so many others’ disdain for education as it is delivered in our schools. And some have been so much more cutting in their remarks.
Mark Twain said, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education,” though he was a playful, comedic chap and it’s hard to know how seriously he meant this.
Here’s one that stings far worse: “Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education,” attributed to Bertrand Russell, one of world history’s most erudite intellectuals, educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.
Does this seem like a reasonable thing to say, given our own experiences? I didn’t teach myself physics. Most of us have a great deal of gratitude to our teachers, and rightfully so.
Can the U.S. Grid Handle EVs?
Here’s a video in which the presenter busts the myth that the U.S. grid can’t handle the mass proliferation of electric vehicles. He explains this in terms of the growth of data centers and the money to be made of selling all that power. I’m sure there is great deal of truth here.
My explanation, which I’ve been providing to readers long before AI and the explosion of data centers, is that, because of the extremely high efficiency of the charging batteries and discharging them through electric motors (close to 90%), vs. the low efficiency of internal combustion engines (~25%), we could replace every gas- and diesel-powered car and light-duty truck in the United States with EVs and cause a total increase of load on the grid of about 14%. Close to nothing.
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Stoic Philosophy
For people wishing to understand stoicism, here’s the core tenet from ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus.
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Is Trump on His Way Out?
Re: the cartoon here, a reader notes: The tide is slowly starting to turn against Trump. But I’m not holding my breath. It can spring back any minute.
Trying to imagine a mechanism by which this “springing back” can happen, but failing to come up with one.
Now it’s true that Trump will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of absolute power, so maybe I need a better and stronger imagination.
A war?
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Teaching Patriotism? Really?
I’m happy to report that during my K-12 years (1960 – 1973), I never heard a teacher mention anything that could be construed as “patriotic.” For example, we learned U.S. history, but it was not twisted to imply that the United States was “the greatest country on Earth.”
There are strengths to that practice, like honesty and integrity.
It doesn’t produce “woke” graduates; it produces fair-minded young people who can think for themselves.
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Until Recently, Dividing the Nation Worked Very Well for Trump
The irony here is that all Trump wanted was absolute power. Dividing the nation between educated/kind people and hateful morons was just a means to that end.
And, until recently, it appeared to be working. Then came the shutting of the government, prices, mental illness, and Epstein, and now he seems to be losing ground.
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