A reader asked me the question above, to which I reply:

Our brains seem to be “wired” in such a way that our political philosophies and other aspects of our character and belief systems are not entirely under our control.

About 10 years ago, I heard a presentation on the results of a university study in which subject participants were hooked up to electronic sensors that monitored the activity in various parts of their brains while they were shown photographs of innocuous things like kittens, puffy white clouds, and the beach, along with occasional photos of things that are potentially dangerous, perhaps an angry dog, a rattlesnake, or a tarantula.

There was a profound difference in brain response between self-described “liberals” and “conservatives.”  In particular, the amygdalas, the part of the brain that deals with “fight or flight,” emotional responses including fear, anxiety, and aggression, in the latter group were far more active in response to potential danger than the former group, suggesting that conservatives are somehow “programmed” to have more violent responses to potential harm than liberals.

Additionally, we all naturally gravitate toward data points that corroborate what we already believe.

To me, this explains why conservatives, especially those of the present day, stir themselves into a frenzy with Fox News and Newsmax, while the rest of us content ourselves with the New York Times.

The novel of author/philosopher Ian McEwan “Saturday,” albeit fiction, takes this subject on in a deep and fascinating way.

 

 

 

 

 

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For dictators all around the globe, incarcerating critics is as important an instrument as a screwdriver is to a toolbox.

In the case of Trump, it serves several purposes. Not only does it silence an opposing voice, but it also a) explains (to idiots) why life here is so painful and chaotic, b) distracts the public from the Epstein files, gas prices, and the senseless and illegal war, and c) accuses the enemy of the crime that Trump himself is guilty of.

“C” above is absolutely key to the success of a dictator.  It’s like what catching fly balls is to baseball.

 

 

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Here’s an interview with a man in a suit and tie who claims that the energy that goes into building solar and wind will never be exceeded by the energy generated by these devices in their lifetimes.  As anyone who cares to look this up can tell you, this is a bald-faced lie.

The EROI (Energy Return on Investment) on renewables is somewhere between 10 and 30, meaning that if you put a kilowatt-hour of energy into solar or wind, you’ll get at least 10 kilowatt-hours out in the worst of conditions, and 30 in the best.

 

 

 

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At left is a graph of the expected temperatures here at 2GreenEnergy headquarters here on the central coast of California.

As you can see, the temperature in Fahrenheit is extremely unlikely to exceed 300 degrees, nor fall below zero.  We won’t be baking turkeys in our backyards, nor will we be making ice.

As a guy who presented numeric data to clients all over the world for three decades, I always tried to make my graphics carry more informational content.

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From a reader:

We ask that all firearm owners put this on their wall. The Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right of the individual. If you believe in the 2nd Amendment, and you are not afraid to show it, re-post this!!! … I hope to see this re-posted by a lot of my friends. Remember, if we outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns!!!

My problem with the absolutism of these people is that they are unwilling or unable to differentiate between the right of a farmer in Wyoming to own a rifle, and some kid with a history of mental illness to own a cache of AR-15s.

What about rocket-propelled grenades? Flame-throwers?  Surface-to-air missiles? Nuclear weapons?

A little sanity here would go a long way.

 

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This is funny–and it’s true, but I suspect there is more to the analysis.

A huge component to what makes the people of Denmark and the dozens of other similar nations so happy is that, where the U.S. is a collection of 335 million individuals looking out for #1, the Danes are a community of people who honestly care about each other and the future of their nation.

For some crazy reason, they prefer not to live among a small group of ultra-rich selfish pigs, and an enormous group of desperate, impoverished, ignorant, mentally unhealthy people.

Nuts, right?

 

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Obviously, the meme here was concocted simply as clickbait, but here’s a comment anyway.  I’m sure there are companies all across the nation that would prefer not to hire liberals, on the basis that we reject the core tenets of the Trump administration: racism, anti-science, disdain for environmental responsibility, the destruction of our public educational system, and so forth.

And all that’s fine if you’re an auto repair shop or a pizzeria.

On the other hand, the Fortune 500 tends to favor candidates who are bright, articulate, well-educated, and focused on problem-solving with fact-based methodologies, rather than what they just heard on Fox News.

 

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I would say that it’s corruption.

Yes, there are more corrupt countries overall, e.g., Russia and the other 53 dictatorships around the world.  But none is our size, and few are pretending to be democracies.

 

 

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The reader who sent me this writes, “Son of Satan.”

Yes. I think of him as his father, Trump, but without the intelligence, honesty, and compassion for the American people.

 

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Here’s a reminder that renewable energy resources are not distributed equally around the globe.

Decarbonizing the energy and transportation sectors in a place like Iceland, which has geothermal energy in amazing abundance, is like falling off a log.

In other places it requires political will, which is sadly lacking in the United States. Here, the petroleum industry is fighting with endless propaganda to convince scientifically illiterate Americans that we need to “drill, baby, drill” while it makes huge contributions to corrupt politicians in return for favorable legislation.

 

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