Historians point to Andrew Jackson, with his butchering of the Native Americans, to the presidents immediately before and after the U.S. Civil War, and to Warren Harding as the previous “worst presidents in our nation’s history.”
Having said that, regardless of what our country’s future turns out to be, it’s virtually impossible to imagine that Trump will not come out on the top of the list.
The meme here is a reminder that to call oneself a “conservative” used to mean something, other than the desire to conserve America’s racist and imperialistic heritage.
There have been conservatives all throughout U.S. history.
For some reason, our nation’s leaders at the turn of the 20th Century are probably the most notable, with TR and John Muir (national parks pioneer).
But skip ahead and you have those who have shaped environmental protection through science, advocacy, and media. Key figures include Jane Goodall (primatologist), David Attenborough (naturalist), Rachel Carson (author of Silent Spring), Steve Irwin (wildlife educator), climate advocate Bill McKibben, activist Naomi Klein, and Story of Stuff founder Annie Leonard.
Sadly, the world must deal with the cottage industry that has arisen to generate and publish malicious bullshit about electric transportation and clean energy more generally.
The efficiency of internal combustion engines is in the 20s, where the efficiency of charging batteries and discharging them through electric motors is in the high 80s. This is why we could replace every car and light-duty truck on Earth with EV and experience an increased load on our grid of only about 14%.
Less importantly, force and energy are two different things.
Imagine what our country, and our world, would be like today if the United States had addressed Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the U.S. government as the act of treason it was.
Former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro staged a military coup, and, when it failed, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
As a result, Brazil, and every other nation on the planet, averted the effects of dealing with this criminal sociopath.
I met a guy earlier today who told me that wind and solar are controversial, and that some people say that the mining and manufacturing of wind turbines requires more fossil fuels than the turbines themselves produce.
I told him that I’m aware of such people; they’re called “professional liars.”
I explained the concept of EROI, energy return on investment, and surprised him by saying that the EROI of wind is somewhere between 18 and 30, meaning that each wind turbine you see as you drive along the freeway will generate at least 18 times as much energy as was required in its mining, fabrication, installation, maintenance, and decommissioning–all the way up to 30 times that amount.
The generation of disinformation of renewables has become a cottage industry. People are paid to make up and publish complete bullshit, so as to discredit the burgeoning clean energy industry, and keep Big Oil in place.
As bad as things are in the United States, they could always get worse.
Trump could succeed in his quest to be a dictator, Christianity could be taught in schools, and unvaccinated adults and their kids could trigger another epidemic.
In terms of our reputation on the world stage, however, things really can’t get much worse; the countries around the globe already regard us with a mixture of hate and derision.
Yet regardless of what the future holds, there will always be idiots who believe that Trump is our savior, like the author of the meme above.
As shown at left, unless your theistic views are harming others, atheists will simply leave you alone.
Examples of “harming others” include teaching creationism in schools as science and going to war because you believe God or Jesus wants you to.
Good to see John Eastman disbarred in California; it’s a small measure of justice.
Criminal prosecution in the future?
I don’t know how many of our readers have seen this, but there is an array of new products that use pressurized steam to clean kitchens and bathrooms.
Imagine you have, as shown at left, baked on grease on the fan in the hood above your stove, or hardened feces on your toilet.
Sure, you could scour it with a brush and hot soapy water, containing the mess so that it can be thrown away. Or, check this out, you can blow it all over the room with this handy new appliance.
The meme here depicts where the United States has gone recently. Our president starts an illegal and unnecessary war.
Can he stop it? Neither quickly nor easily.
Does he deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Absolutely.
