If I were guessing, I would say that among America’s top military people, about 10% are Trump supporters. The most accomplished and well-educated folks in the service, the generals and the admirals, understand that Trump is a would-be authoritarian who has utter contempt for the U.S. Constitution.

Even at the bottom of the military pyramid, i.e., the enlisted men and women, the situation isn’t very different.  These people can’t be too enamored of Trump’s calling them “suckers and losers,” pardoning convicted war criminals, etc.

 

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At left is what has troubled me about the belief in God since I was three years old.

I asked my mother, “How did all this stuff get here,” and she replied, “God made it.” When I asked in response, “Who made God?” she said, “Nobody knows.”

I told her that this was not going to work for me, and then, I guess, I asked her to tell me a bedtime story.

The idea that reason is inferior to belief in things for which there is no evidence has been abhorrent to me for as long as I can remember.

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Funny cartoon, but only so if we can let go of the fact that the hats don’t cause the ignorance; it’s the ignorance that causes the hats.

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It’s good to know that the medical community is putting up a fight against the anti-science crackpots in the Trump administration.

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The gorgeous meme at left poses an interesting question: Are things getting worse, or simply more overt?

Well, let’s compare today’s world with the one we lived in 50 years ago.

In 1975, with Gerald Ford at the helm, how much of the following were part of our lives?

• Corporate criminality

• Lawlessness in the office of the POTUS

• A president who uses the justice system to attack journalists critical of him.

• Rejection of basic science in our policymaking

• Overt destruction of the U.S. educational system

• The tearing apart of relationships with American allies

For my money, things actually are getting worse.

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Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (@epagov) released a proposal that would gut the 2009 Endangerment Finding and undermine the foundational scientific finding that global warming pollution endangers public health and the environment. At the same time, it’s repealing strong car and truck pollution limits and threatening other vital standards.

At left are the words of the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists; to say that they’re “concerned” is putting it nicely.

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Re: the opinion expressed at left, I’m not naive enough to think that I’m changing the political philosophy of any significant number of my friends who happen to be Trumpers with my blog and other writings.

That said, I find it important to communicate my beliefs, regardless of the effect they may have on others.

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Here’s a call for investors to pump money into a Michigan-based start-up that claims it will produce small commuter aircraft with drone-like rotors.

Oh. Well, I guess if it’s “pure” opportunity, it must be pretty special. I’d pass if it were just some sort of adulterated opportunity.

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Let’s do some math and physics associated with the claim made here.  The typical passenger train requires about 5 megawatts.  If the average efficiency of solar PV is 25%, and its capacity factor is also 25%, and the solar irradiance is 1000 Watts/square meter, we need:

x square meters * 1000 Watts/square meter * 0.25 * 0.25 * 10 square feet / square meter * 1 acre / 43000 square feet / acre = 5,000,000 Watts.

That means we need about 20 acres of train roof to get that done.  If the train is 20 feet wide, it needs to be almost a mile long.  Does that describe the typical passenger train?

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The quote at left comes from former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.  While I don’t disagree, it would be possible to bifurcate this into separate pieces.

Piece #1: Get rid of Trump, and to whatever degree possible, everything he represents: lawlessness, authoritarianism, racism, the rejection of science, and the destruction of education.  Until this happens, the United States is going nowhere but backwards into savagery.

Piece #2: Take the steps necessary to get corruption out of politics, beginning by overturning the SCOTUS decision “Citizens United.”

 

 

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