The fallacy of unlimited electricity

 The world has reacted to global warming by changing how we make electricity. Coal plants are being shut down (with no thanks to Trump), in favor of wind power and photovoltaic cells. Now these are even becoming more economically viable in addition to their less harmful effects on the environment. So we can feel good about all that.

But now here comes several new users of electricity that each have rapacious appetites. Bitcoins are created by computers solving difficult mathematical equations. This industry alone has grown to use more electricity than the nation of Poland. We also have online platforms like Youtube and Amazon that take up terrawatt hours of electricity. Now the newest super-consumer is artificial intelligence, which is a huge user. The projection is that “electricity demand from data centres worldwide is set to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh), slightly more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan today. AI will be the most significant driver of this increase, with electricity demand from AI-optimised data centres projected to more than quadruple by 2030 “ [https://www.iea.org/news/ai-is-set-to-drive-surging-electricity-demand-from-data-centres-while-offering-the-potential-to-transform-how-the-energy-sector-works].

So on the one hand, we are making greener electricity, but on the other hand, the demand is growing so fast that we may not be able to keep up. This will increase pressure to re-open mothballed coal and gas plants. And there goes all the effort to help prevent global warming. There needs to be discussion about what is more important, our freedom to make AI cat videos, or a livable planet?

Landmarks on the road to autocracy

 Here are some landmarks on the road to autocracy.  See whether the US is starting to exhibit some of this in the executive branch:

Reward compliance

Suppress dissent

Weaken or ignore the separation of powers in the Constitution (judicial, legislative, executive), granting more and more powers to the Executive

fire those seen as opposing the president, hire sychophants rather than more qualified people  in their place

discredit and weaken OR control the press

Cause chaos instead of stability

lie to the public

spend more time maintaining power rather than the important issues of the time

attempt to circumvent the law

Declare the need for Emergency Powers even when there is no such situation

attempt to sideline rivals to power – use government resources to attack those against or perceived against the presidency

Scapegoat vulnerable communities

Use violence or threats against opponents

manipulate voting procedures

The US has a new description: "unreliable"

 

The United States is no longer a stable, reliable country. Because we are switching from siding with our military allies to siding with Russia, NATO and other countries are deciding to wean off US military equipment. This is $238 billion per year of sales, now in jeopardy. These countries will just switch to their own production instead.

Because we have started to punish instead of embrace our economic trading partners, they have begun boycotting and putting tariffs on our products.

Because we no longer treat foreigners in our country with respect and stable rules, tourists and potential immigrants have started to go elsewhere.

Because federal employees are being fired without notice and without cause, it will be much more difficult to find qualified, experienced individuals to fill important positions in our government.

Because our current economic planning is so haphazard and opaque, businesses and corporations cannot plan ahead with proper information, because that information no longer exists.

Because US citizens have no way of knowing what may be cut by DOGE next – Medicaid? Medicare? Social Security? - there is real fear for the immediate future by many over whether they will even be able to afford food and rent.

The US Constitution explains in its own words what the purpose of our government is: “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” The Trump Administration is taking us into Opposite Land, turning us against each other, demolishing Justice, causing domestic turmoil, endangering our defense, dismantling the general Welfare, and tossing away any hope for the Blessings of Liberty, for ourselves and our children.

The Constitution split power in the federal government into Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The Executive is actively attempting to curtail the powers of the Legislative and Judicial. Congress, at least for now, has Constitutional powers to limit this power grab and limit the damage that DOGE's “move fast and break things” actions are doing to us.The Judicial branch has oversight that could limit this carnage as well.  Now we wait to see how wise our Founding Fathers were.

China discovers solar panels help reverse desertification

 https://glassalmanac.com/china-confirms-that-installing-solar-panels-in-deserts-irreversibly-transforms-the-ecosystem/

 

"What’s causing this shift? The solar panels create consistent shade, which helps retain moisture, lower soil temperatures, and reduce evaporation. In arid environments where water is scarce, these subtle changes can make a huge difference—allowing vegetation to flourish and supporting the growth of microorganisms essential for soil health."

 * * * * *

So, not only do you get green energy, you help green the direct environment!  Win Win!

USA 2024 is gone. USA 2025 is a nightmare

 

My view of the United States up to 2025 was that we are a reliable, peaceful, democratic country. Let's take each of those separately to see what has changed.

RELIABILITY

The United States was seen as a reliable trading partner by most countries. Canada, our largest trading partner, is now starting a boycott of our products. Trump's 25% on-again, off-again tariff threat has forced Canada to look elsewhere for trading partners, and retaliate against US tariffs. This is not how reliable trading partners act.

The United States was seen as an ally against foreign threats by many countries. Now, WE are the threat against Canada, Panama, Greenland, and Gaza. Trump has threatened to literally take over each of those countries, and has not ruled out military force to do it. Ukraine felt secure in it's relationship with the United States after it was invaded by Russia. Now the United States is switching sides in that war.

PEACEFUL

President Trump has threatened to take over Canada, Panama, Greenland, and Gaza. He has not ruled out military methods to achieve this. Each rationalization for these takeovers is ridiculous. How are we a peace-loving country when we threaten to go to war with our close allies?

There is a thing called “soft power” that Trump does not even seem to know about. This is where a country's actions and reputation show it to be a helpful, peaceful partner. Countries react to soft power by becoming faithful partners. Trump's only method of communication with other countries seems to be threatening either monetary or military actions.

DEMOCRATIC

Our Constitution splits federal power into Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches, where each has its own sphere of authority. Each can also serve as a check on the power of the other branches. Trump has completely obliterated this Constitutional system by ramrodding through his own plans and ignoring any idea of shared power. His apparent goal is to dismantle or at least severely damage the agencies that Congress has set up to deal with national problems and issues. Congress, meanwhile, has acquiesced to Trump's destructive actions and ignored it's role in deciding what our tax dollars are spent on.

So now, after just a few short weeks, the United States government is no longer reliable, peaceful, nor democratic, to other countries AND to its own citizens. The citizens are taking to the streets to protest this. But Congress, the branch of government with actual checking powers over the Executive branch, sits submissively as its own creations are dismantled. Why? What strange magic keeps Congress asleep at the wheel? What will this mean for the future of Legislative power? Will we have a king again? I worry.

The New Style of American Foreign Policy

 Donald Trump has made his decision on Ukraine:  "Hey, there's a guy getting beaten up! Let's offer to help him if he promises to give us all the money in his wallet!"  Everything with Trump has to be transactional, where he (or us) comes out on top.  There is no humanity in this.  Russia attacked Ukraine in order to take it over. Ukrainians are literally fighting for their lives.  Trump rushes in and wants to take over their natural resources or he will stop helping them. Welcome to the new Dystopia.

Some useful reading for the coup

Here are some books that will help you work your way through the coup going on in the USA.

Wealth and Democracy, by Kevin Phillips

America in the Gilded Age, by Sean Dennis Cashman

The Power of the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel

How Fascism Works, by Jason Stanley

Soft Power, by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

Hiding in Plain Sight, by Sarah Kendzior

How to Lose a Country, by Ece Temelkuran

Do the poor need less money? Do the rich need more?

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-republican-budget-tax-cut-medicaid_n_67acd43be4b0239406dec54e

 

"Republicans have openly acknowledged that despite their furious opposition to big budget deficits, they themselves are making no effort to fully offset the cost of their tax cuts. Instead, they have said their proposed changes would boost the economy so much that tax receipts from increased business activity will make up the difference."

 So it's screw the poor, give tax cuts to the rich, and explode the deficit.  And this makes sense how? 

Are national borders important anymore?

 

Russia tries to take over Ukraine, and the US says No!

China threatens to take over Taiwan, and the US says No!

Rwanda tries to take over DRC and the US says No!

Now the US wants to take over Panama, Canada, Greenland, and Gaza. Ok?

How one guy can screw up the world

 I mean, we tried. The Constitution divides power into three branches of government so there can be no concentration of power and everybody has a check on their actions.  But now one party under the cultish sway of one man in charge of our Executive Branch is also in charge of the other two branches.  The check and balance system has been turned into accept and promote.  A convicted felon has crowned the richest man on earth Lord of the Bureaucracies, giving him unlimited authority and access to any and all federal government offices.  This is not how things are supposed to work.

But let's not just tamper with the United States government, says the felon.  China might take over Panama, so we need that back.  Greenland has a lot of resources, so we'll have to take that.  Canada shares the longest border with us, so let's make that the 51st state.  Gaza was pummeled into dust by an ally of ours, so we need to take that to straighten it out.  

And rather than being friendly to the world, we're going to punish every country that trades with us by slapping tariffs on their products.  Any international body designed to keep peace and tranquility on the world stage is now an enemy.

Where will this take us and the world?  From now on, the United States will be seen as unreliable, belligerent, crude, and selfish.  Kind of like our current president.  And we voted him in.

A coup has begun in the US

 

This is a Coup

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are engaging in a coup at this time. They are ignoring our Legislative and Judicial branches of government and bypassing bureaucratic rules within federal departments. They are replacing current vetted, nonpartisan, experienced federal employees with sycophants with questionable backgrounds and qualifications. By the time they are done, we will for the first time since before the Revolutionary war be ruled by one person rather than our Constitution.

How are they doing this? It's obvious when you look carefully.

Distraction

Trump has pushed the idea that the United States might take over Panama, Greenland, and Canada, possibly by force (which means, war). There is no logical sense to any of this, since the minor grievances he touts can be handled by negotiation. There is no “emergency” on our borders at this time, but emergency powers Trump declared give him more authority to act unilaterally. These are a distraction from the coup.

Trump created a DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) boogyman to try to gloss over why he needs to go after federal employees. There is no actual problem with hiring a diverse group of qualified people in our federal government. This is a distraction and an excuse only.

Trump has slapped tariffs on our largest and most reliable trading partners, Canada and Mexico. He offers no reasoning that makes sense. This will harm their economies as well as ours, hurting everybody and helping only to distract from the coup.

Ignore

The Constitution was designed to make sure that governmental power does not reside in the hands of one person or small group. That is why powers are divided between Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Each has the authority to put a check on the other two, using rules and guidelines spelled out within the Constitution and through laws legally passed. President Trump, without placing his hand on the Bible, just pledged during his swearing-in to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution. He is not doing any of that. He has for example signed executive orders that go against the Constitution, such as his attempt to end birth citizenship, which is clearly written in the 14^th amendment.

Elon Musk was designated head of a made-up organization called the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), which is to look for waste within the federal departments. It was subsumed into a real department, the United States Digital Service, which was formed in 2014. The USDS is designed to help federal departments be more efficient in their digital work environment. This means USDS employees are meant to work within the computer systems in many departments of government. Musk has used this authority to at times force his way into the databases that American citizens assume are safe and secure from outside prying eyes. For instance, “Earlier, the New York Times reported Trump’s Treasury secretary Scott Bessent handed Doge department officials access to the payment system which sends out money to the tune of $5 trillion per year on behalf of the entire federal government on Friday, citing anonymous sources. “ [https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/02/02/this-needs-to-stop-now-elon-musk-confirms-radical-doge-us-treasury-plan/]

The fight for database access has begun: “Over the weekend, two top security officials at USAID were put on administrative leave for refusing members of the Department of Government Efficiency access to systems at the agency, even when DOGE personnel threatened to call law enforcement, multiple sources familiar with the situation told CNN. The DOGE personnel wanted to gain access to USAID security systems and personnel files, three sources said. Two of those sources also said the DOGE personnel wanted access to classified information, which only those with security clearances and a specific need to know are able to access. “ [https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/usaid-washington-workers/index.html] This begs the question: why are the USDS employees trying to circumvent established security to access any database they want? And by what authority are the claiming this privilege?

Infiltrate, Replace

So now, with control of a department that can walk into pretty much any federal bureaucracy and demand access to their databases, and by firing current federal employees to replace them with Trump sycophants, what will be left of the federal government but a mass of Trump loyalists with unknown qualifications for their jobs? And what will these people do when their loyalty is not to the Constitution, but to a man?

I feel like we're all on a cruise ship where we voted for which crew we wanted by a small margin. As we're leaving the dock we begin to notice that our crew is methodically dismantling the ship while claiming that everything is fine.

Things to Read

Hiding in Plain Sight: the Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, by Sarah Kendzior

The Power of the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel

Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics, by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, by Jason Stanley

How to Lose a Country: the 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, by Ece Temelkuran

Goodbye acid rain, hello plastic rain

 https://getpocket.com/explore/item/plastic-rain-is-the-new-acid-rain?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

 

It further confirms an increasingly hellish scenario: Microplastics are blowing all over the world, landing in supposedly pure habitats, like the Arctic and the remote French Pyrenees. They’re flowing into the oceans via wastewater and tainting deep-sea ecosystems, and they’re even ejecting out of the water and blowing onto land in sea breezes. And now in the American West, and presumably across the rest of the world given that these are fundamental atmospheric processes, they are falling in the form of plastic rain—the new acid rain. 

 * * * * *

Plastic doesn't go away.  It just breaks up and hangs around.  We are so screwing future generations just for our personal convenience.

 

Soft Power missing from the Trump Administration

 "Soft Power" is defined as "the ability to get what your want through attraction rather than coercion and payments.  It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies.  When our policies are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others, our soft power is enhanced." [Soft Power, by Joseph S. Nye, Jr., p. X]

President Trump seems to only understand hard power: the demand for compliance with the threat of economic or military reprisal if compliance is not forthcoming.  But soft power is at least equally as powerful as hard power, without any bad side effects like tariff wars or actual wars.  Soft Power is cheaper, safer, and often more lasting.  We should go back to it.

Are mass protests demanding change losing their punch?

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-activists-mass-protest

 

“The march itself is not the end game,” said Tamika Middleton, Managing Director of Women’s March. “The march itself is a tool, is a mechanism to bring more folks into the movement and get more folks engaged.”

 

* * * * * *

I've been both a participant and an organizer of many protests.  A few years ago I started wondering whether the ways we used to look at protesting might just be outdated.  The Internet, for instance, opened up as a new way to reach people about an issue.  I have had several web sites, for instance, freely giving out information and documentation to anyone with a computer.  There is such a divers and prolific amount of information in the world nowadays, it's difficult to concentrate like-minded people into one day's and one place's activity.  

So for now, this is still something I'm pondering.  If not protests, then what?  Youtube videos?  Lots of blogging?  I don't know.

The Billionaires are Taking Over

 https://www.newser.com/story/362490/musk-bezos-zuckerberg-will-sit-together-at-inauguration.html

 

The people in the top three spots on Forbes' billionaire list—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg—will have prime seats at President-elect Trump's inauguration next week. NBC News, citing "an official involved with the planning of the event," reports that the three tech billionaires will be sitting together on the platform with other high-profile guests, including Trump's Cabinet nominees. Bezos and Zuckerberg's companies, Amazon and Meta, have each donated $1 million to the inauguration, while Musk spent more than $250 million to help Trump win the election, reports Reuters.  

* * * * *

Trump, an alleged billionaire himself, has opened the doors for his billionaire friends to take over our government as well as our economy.  All this will do is concentrate even more of our wealth into just a few hands.  I don't think voters thought this through.

US ships its toxic waste to Mexico, doesn't care what happens after that

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jan/14/monterrey-mexico-steel-us-toxic-waste

 

“We have a toxic cocktail here,” said Soto Jiménez, who sampled soil and dust around the plant after being alerted to the issue by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, an investigative journalism non-profit.

Soto Jiménez has found even more alarming concentrations of pollutants at other homes and in a school surrounding the plant – sometimes hundreds of times higher than US risk thresholds.

The researcher has concluded that the contaminants came from the plant. The general director of the facility, for his part, says it follows “the highest standards” and complies with regulations.

What is the plant processing?

Among other things, vast quantities of America’s hazardous waste.

* * * * *

It's an easy "fix" to just send your problems to somebody else.  But this is a cynical, temporary solution. Also, product waste should be thought through BEFORE a product is made, not ignored.

 

housing that is suitable and survivable for the local environment

 https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/la-fires-architect-home-survived-783939-20250111

 

As for how the mansion survived the fire, Steiner told the New York Post how the property's 'ultra-sturdy construction' likely saved it from the fires.

"It’s stucco and stone with a fireproof roof,’’ he said.

 * * * * *

The Book, Ecology of Fear, by Mike Davis, explains why the Los Angeles area is prone to annual fires whipped up by Santa Anna Winds.  It is not a secret.  It is not unusual for the area.  There are ways to build where houses do not go up in flames like match sticks.  None of this is rocket science.

 We need to be building for our local environment.  It is known how to do this.

 

 

 

How to handle Disinformation

 https://civicnebraska.org/20-ways-to-fight-disinformation/

 

1. educate yourself

2. verify

3. cross-check sources

4. think critically

5. check dates

6. champion media literacy

7. report disinformation

8. pause before sharing

9. know who you can trust

10. push back constructively

11. support fact-checking organizations

12.  promote digital literacy

13. check your biases

14. use technology

15. promote transparency

16. be accountable

17. practice what you preach

* * * * *

From this list, I think #9 is the most important.  The key is knowing how to filter out information sources and find who is reliable, consistent, and has integrity.

This is getting more important as social media struggles with how to handle disinformation.  The struggle seems to be the balance between freedom of speech and the harm that can result from disinformation.  Since we are social animals and the world is not just black and white, it is obvious that discussion, argumentation, and disagreement will happen.  But what tools should be allowed at the table?

Is Tesla Big Brother?

 

Social media feeds us fake people

 https://gizmodo.com/metas-ai-profiles-are-already-polluting-instagram-and-facebook-with-slop-2000545433

 

The AI apocalypse is here and it’s far stupider and more depressing than we were promised. Instead of being hunted down by a gleaming metal skeleton in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, we are surrounded by zombies endlessly repeating our own posts back to us.

 * * * * *

 So we go on social media to interact with people, and they feed us zombies????  This is the future?  You can't even tell which peope are real and which are created to make a buck off our time spent talking to nothing?  I don't like it.