orthodox and sensible views of climate change

March 31, 2026

March 31, 2026

Orthodoxy is what guides us and what we doThe ‘Sensible view’ of climate change….. What does not guide us.
 No Problem Problems
Climate change if real, is no big deal.Climate change is real. As climate and weather are complex systems we don’t know for sure how bad it will get, but the evidence available suggests climate change is happening and that it will be bad.
What is the problem with things getting a few degrees warmer?Small changes in one variable, can generate large changes in complex systems. This is just what happens.
The effects of climate change are not dramatic.It may not be a small change – we do not know.

However, the mathematics of sea level rise, suggests you should think of selling property near the coast. Not much has happened yet but melting will become a problem.
There is no need to do damage by hurrying and we don’t have to do anything much anyway.We should at least be preparing to adapt to changed conditions and we should  try not to make things worse
ScienceScience
Scientists are alarmistsScience is always incomplete, but it is silly to ignore all the warnings from those who have studied the situation over a long time.
Scientists are socialists and harmful to peopleScientists have varied political views. And even if they were all socialists and aiming for socialism, that does not mean their science is wrong.
Only an ideological polarising position would assume that.
Scientists are not practical people. They don’t understand economies and the realities that ordinary people faceScientists live in the world and have to solve practical problems in lab equipment and funding all the time.
They are ivory tower at best.They are not ivory tower economists nor corporate leaders, who want to avoid challenges.
Scientists don’t understand the truth and lie all the timeHmmm…. A bit of projection there?
Science is always changing. Science is never settledScience is never settled it improves. Anti-climate change ‘science’ does not seem to improve or deal with new situations at all. It keeps bringing up objections which have been refuted time and again.

Science may be inadequate but it is still the best form of knowledge that we have.
Because scientists are all of the above, we should suppress mention of climate change by the State and suppress research into climate change. But we should try to hide this.State suppression of research and of mention of the words ‘climate change’, indicates pretty clearly that scientists are not the elites with power here.
Scientists know nothing for sure, so we know everything is okThis is an often implied statement which despite its commonality, does not indicate much familiarity with logic
Good informationInformation
Good information is always sceptical of scienceIf so, then we should throw out our computers and other tech, because they may summon devils.
Good information comes from:
…..Right wing or Murdoch media
…..Corporate think tanks
…..Oil Companies
…..Atlas Network
They know what they are talking about		These people do not have a perceivable bias?

And they have little scientific credibility.

If they had recommendations for adapting to or reducing climate change that did not function to increase fossil fuel usage, then maybe they might be worthwhile.
This real information is banned by scientists as it’s not politically correct or wokeThere are plenty of scientists and engineers who are not politically correct. Lack of knowledge of this is not a strong point for the orthodox
The peopleNot assuming we know what everyone wants
The people know the truth that we tell them. We are standing up for the people.You are standing up for corporations and big business, not people.
The people don’t want solar or wind farms in their landscapes.According to you, people apparently don’t object to coal mines, fracking, gas pipes. or coal fired power stations in their landscapes Strange that.

People should be consulted about developments nearby, and benefit from them.in the long term as well as the short term.
The StateStates
If the State does anything, it will just mess things up, as it did with CovidStates are generally not consistently helping to reduce emissions. They do help increase them, and are messing climate action up.

States which listened to the science about covid tended to have fewer casualties per head. than those who decided that science would harm their economies.
Doing anything about climate change leads to tyrannyNot doing anything about climate change leads to tyranny as those who object have to be suppressed to keep fossil fuel profits going.
EconomicsThere is no one Economics
Neoliberal, or neo-classical economics is trueThere is no one economics. Neoliberal economics is about handing power and influence to hyper-rich people. It considers
‘the people’ only as failures, property, slaves, or consumers.

Other economics resist this, but do not get as much publicity from media or corporate backed think tanks.

Another surprise.
Prosperity depends on fossil fuels.Prosperity has depended on Fossil Fuels, but fossil fuels are no longer largely beneficial. They are harmful. Now is the time to innovate and reduce their use.
The profit of established companies, and the workings of the established economy is vital to our prosperity.The profit of established companies, is vital for the profit of established companies.

Capitalism proceeds by creative destruction, why avoid this?
We must sell our fossil fuels.So as to make things worse for ourselves. The effects of fossil fuel pollution is not confined to the burners.

How much does the country earn from selling fossil fuels anyway?

Does most of the profit go to tax shelters?
Burning fossil fuels overseas is ok and helps development.It helps lock overseas countries into fossil fuels for their development and this leads to more expected profits for fossil fuel companies.
Not selling fossil fuels overseas is a demand for poverty,Is there only one path of development? Why can’t people just skip fossil fuels, and skip having to keep buying fossil fuels? What do people want from development anyway?
Climate change action costs business and they will move overseas to places that are not taking actionSometimes a bit of sacrifice is required for survival. Virtue is not always easy
Economic powerEconomic power defends itself
Climate change is a scam driven by power hungry international renewable energy companiesThe idea “there is no threat from climate change” is a scam driven by power hungry, established and incredibly rich fossil fuel companies.

They have known of the threat of climate change to civilization since the 1950-60s, but they want to keep profiteering.
Renewable Energy Companies want to destroy industrial civilisation and send us back to the cavesSelling lots of energy makes all energy company’s money.

However, if industrial civilisation is destroying itself and the ecology it depends upon through pollution, over-consumption and over-extraction isn’t it wise to start changing things?
It is a scam driven by foreign NGOs‘No climate change’ is a scam driven by overseas think-tanks funded by overseas corporations. Particularly fossil fuel companies
The contextLife Contexts
Technology will fix everything.Technology may fix things, or it may not. We need to start trying it our, and phasing out all the tech that helps cause climate change, or seems useless to help reduce it.
Technology will arise because we need it – through the magic of the free marketTechnology is not magic, neither are free markets.

Technology may not arise until it is too late. Technology may have side-effects which are too dangerous. Technology may cost too much to be deployed.

We already have many good technologies which could replace fossil fuels in many cases.
Ecology is unimportant.Ecology gives us life.
It is our life. Try living without it.
The real threat is population in undeveloped countries. “There are just too many humans”The real threat, at the moment, is how much we consume and pollute per head of population and that changes with social position. 

We could perhaps get rid of high level polluters who are incredibly rich, as they cause a lot more damage than poorer people, but this will probably not happen.
PersecutionPersecution
Despite this position being supported by rich elites, and our country not doing anything to stop climate change, we are the minority, radical, position fighting against people who accept information mindlessly to promote their left-wing politics.The orthodox are fighting for the rich elites to mindlessly promote right wing politics.

Abuse does not solve problems, but it does try to avoid challenges and stop people looking for them
People are being bullied into silenceExactly…. Protest against climate change can lead to severe prison terms,

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The Orthodox view of Climate Change

March 31, 2026
Orthodoxy is what guides us and what we do
 No Problem
Climate change is not real, or its no big deal.
What is the problem with things getting a few degrees warmer?
The effects of climate change are not dramatic.
There is no need to do damage by hurrying and we don’t have to do anything much
Science
Scientists are alarmists
Scientists are socialists and harmful to society
Scientists are not practical people. They don’t understand economies and the reality that ordinary people face
They are ivory tower at best.
Scientists don’t understand the truth and lie all the time
Science is always changing. Science is never settled
Because scientists are all of the above, we should suppress mention of climate change by the State and suppress research into climate change.
They know nothing for sure, so we know everything is ok
Good information
Good information is always sceptical of science
Good information comes from:
Right wing or Murdoch media
Corporate think tanks
Oil Companies
Atlas Network
They know what they are talking about
This real information is banned by scientists as it’s not politically correct or woke
The people
The people know the truth that we tell them. We are standing up for the people.
The people don’t want solar or wind farms in their landscapes. [They don’t object to coal mines, fracking, or coal fired power stations]
The State
If the State does anything, it will just mess things up, as it did with Covid
Doing anything about climate change leads to tyranny
Economics
Prosperity depends on fossil fuels.
The profit of established companies, and the workings of the established economy is vital to our prosperity.
We must sell our fossil fuels.
Burning fossil fuels overseas is ok and helps development.
Not selling fossil fuels overseas is a demand for poverty,
Climate change action costs business and they will move overseas to places that are not taking action
Economic power
Climate change is a scam driven by power hungry international renewable energy companies
Renewable Energy Companies want to destroy industrial civilisation and send us back to the caves
It is a scam driven by foreign NGOs
The idea that climate change is harmless is not a scam driven by fossil fuel companies
The context
Technology will fix everything.
Technology will arise because we need it – through the magic of the free market
Ecology is unimportant.
The real threat is population in undeveloped countries. “There are just too many humans”
Persecution
Despite this position being supported by rich elites, and our country not doing anything to stop climate change, we are the minority, radical, position fighting against people who accept information mindlessly to promote their left-wing politics.
People are being bullied into silence

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Alfred Adler and climate change

February 14, 2026

Adler’s psychology is pretty straightforward, and thus is quite usefull to direct attention. I’ll also add a little complexity theory to this mix [1] [2]

Adler’s fundamental position can be expressed as: We all have both a desire for power and competence, and to display that power and competence to others.

In this situation, life involves challenges (for almost all beings). Some of these challenges are ‘routine’, challenges of love, life and work (gathering energy for life). Some of these challenges will vary from place to place, generation to generation, or gender to gender. There are very few people who don’t have to face such challenges. Basically you cannot develop without experiencing these challenges and facing them.

We can succeed in ‘dealing with’ those challenges displaying our power and competence, we can then face new challenges. We can acknowledge failure and revise our plans and start again knowing more than we did when we first started. We can pretend we are successful and superior to others, or loose energy and retreat into nothingness.

Acknowledging failure is better than fake success, because acknowledging failure allows you to try again, or start something new. Failure is normal. When we learn to walk we fail repeatedly, but we get there, and it is similar with many other learning experiences/tasks.

As we mature we realise that we need to work with others on big challenges, and that contributing to others’ success is also a great feeling provided you are not avoiding challenges through how superior you are.

Life tends to present you with the choice between difficulty or superior ease, and the challenges are rarely finished, because we will all face sickness and death.

Sometimes the big challenges are challenges you have little to no hope of solving alone. Complexity is always generating new challenges, often because of the unintended consequences of our attempts to bring order to the world. Climate change is one of these challenges.

Again as well as trying and temporarily failing, you can pretend that scientists don’t know what they are talking about, that you are superior to them, because you can see the problems with their ideas/theories or observations without actually doing the work. You don’t have to face the challenges because they are not challenges, or you face the real challenges others you don’t like deny like perhaps trans people, or the decline of white culture or whatever,.

And it is difficult to deal with climate. You often have the State against you, which is keen to damage people who oppose climate change and who might raise alarm amongst other people. You also have exceedingly wealthy and powerful corporations fighting you to maintain their profit.

So it is not easy.

But Adler’s point is that human life is not always easy, especially in the middle of a big social challenge which is produced by the dominant groups.

The point is, do you want to try and help protect yourself, your children and grandchildren, or the children and grandchildren of your friends and kin?

Will you explore the problem and try to find constructive ways to work with others to resolve those challenges?

This requires courage, and the imagination to think of something new.

Or do you want to avoid the challenge, and yeild to destruction and fantasy or not?

We can have hope because we can persist, even in the face of defeat. Hope is not a feeling, it is a set of actions. We are part of the system and also somewhat independent on the system – we can fight the trends of the system. ‘Hope’ is signed by the fight and the search for solutions.

More later

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February 14, 2026

retesting~

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A silly post

June 26, 2025

What would happen if we pretended that we could play the game of life without without having to destroy our environment by playing?

After all most of us care about some of the people we live with, and around, and would not go out of our way to harm them. Perhaps we could live without going out of our way to harm other beings? Without pollution, or pretending that we don’t pollute?

It could be an interesting venture to try, not that we would get much support. I guess it would look like cranky individualism.

But is hard to play anything without an ‘environment; play in…

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Robert Reich on the One Big Beautiful Bill

May 23, 2025

Reich asked people to share….. Hence I’m sharing – and as usual it demonstrates Trump’s neoliberal priorities – Benefit his own class of people first, and stomp on everyone else.

The bill is over a thousand pages long, it is almost certain that there are pork-barrel sections in it for particular Republicans.

No sensible bill should be that long, Congress should know what it is voting on.

********************

Reich says:

The old professor in me thinks the best way to convey to you how utterly awful the so-called “one big beautiful bill” passed by the House last night actually is would be to give you this short ten-question exam. (Answers are in parenthesis, but first try to answer without looking at them.)

1. Does the House’s “one big beautiful bill” cut Medicare?

2. Because the bill cuts Medicaid, how many Americans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage?

3. Will the tax cut in the bill benefit the rich or the poor or everyone?

4. How much will the top 0.1 percent of earners stand to gain from it?

5. If you figure in the benefit cuts and the tax cuts, will Americans making between about $17,000 and $51,000 gain or lose?

  • (They’ll lose about $700 a year).

6. How about Americans with incomes less than $17,000?

  • (They’ll lose more than $1,000 per year on average).

7. How much will the bill add to the federal debt?

8. Who will pay the interest on this extra debt?

  • (All of us, in both our tax payments and higher interest rates for mortgages, car loans, and all other longer-term borrowing.)

9. Who collects this interest?

  • (People who lend to the U.S. government, 70 percent of whom are American and most of whom are wealthy.)

10. Bonus question: Is the $400 million airplane from Qatar a gift to the United States for every future president to use, or a gift to Trump for his own personal use?

  • (It’s a personal gift because he’ll get to use it after he leaves the presidency.)

11. [In another email Reich argues that: the courts are now without ability to enforce judgements against Trump and his coterie in government.]

The courts have one power to make their orders stick: holding federal officials in contempt and enforcing such contempt citations against them. [However the big bill states]

“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued….”

As U.C. Berkeley School of Law Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law Erwin Chemerinsky notes, this provision would eliminate any restraint on Trump.

‘Without the contempt power, judicial orders are meaningless and can be ignored. There is no way to understand this except as a way to keep the Trump administration from being restrained when it violates the Constitution or otherwise breaks the law. …

‘This would be a stunning restriction on the power of the federal courts. The Supreme Court has long recognized that the contempt power is integral to the authority of the federal courts. Without the ability to enforce judicial orders, they are rendered mere advisory opinions which parties are free to disregard.”

With this single provision, in other words, Trump will have crowned himself king.

[12. Another source states that the US government’s authority to borrow, known as the debt limit, will increase by $4tn. Anyone who has followed American Politics knows that Republicans try to stop debt limit expansion when there is a Democrat President. It also admits that Trump will hugely increase the deficit despite the chaos generated by Doge. This is usually considered bad.]

[If you didn’t know this,] that’s because of

(1) distortions and cover-ups emanating from Trump and magnified by Fox News and other rightwing outlets.

(2) A public that’s overwhelmed with the blitzkrieg of everything Trump is doing, and can’t focus on this. [“Flood the zone with shit” as Bannon says]

(3) Outright silencing of many in the media who fear retaliation from the Trump regime if they reveal things that Trump doesn’t want revealed, [and the ownership of Media by Billionaires and corporations, who will benefit in the short term from Trump’s policies.]

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Dictatorship or Evacuation?

April 5, 2025

Trump may want a dictatorship with himself at the top gaining deference from everyone. He has for example, not consulted with congress about a number of things he is supposed to consult about. He has said he will be able to seek a third term, possibly through succession. There are innumerable stories about how State level Republicans have been trying to get rid of potential non-Trump voters to fix elections for good eg [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. This is all part of Project 2025.

But if that is his aim, his attempts to implement project 2025 may not be generating the result he wants. Dictatorships are usually said to require a strong, well organised State.

By pulling the State apart, and massively confusing people as to his aims, he is generating a plutocracy, in which those who have enough riches will be able to do what they want, and those who do not have enough riches will get to do what they are told and to suffer. This represents a philosophy generally called “libertarianism” [7], [8]. Peter Thiel one of the billionaire founders of the movement leading to project 2025, stated clearly that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Democracy, in which people (including women) are consulted, is apparently incompatible with corporate liberty, or the liberty of the rich and special. Libertarianism, or oligarchy, is more likely to result from Project 2025.

Musk is a libertarian, who may well consider getting some people off earth more important than any aim of general welfare – after all if Earth is rendered unlivable before he gets a self-sufficient Mars base, then humanity may be doomed. If every human on Earth dies as a result of corporate and government actions, and the survivors on Mars found ‘Human space’ then all is well – humanity continues. This is virtue in the long term! As far as I know he has not declared government spending on his Space-X company to be a waste of money, and suitable for cutbacks (although he apparently has terminated expenditure into investigations into potentially illegal acts by his companies) [8]. He seems far keener to sink money into escape than into technology to prevent or lessen the effects of climate change – as after all climate science in the USA has been severely disrupted and repressed [9], [10], [11], [12].

Generally corporations like stability, so they can plan, so they can engage in profitable but low risk investment and so on. So most companies will not like the chaotic result of Project 2025 when they see the results, however much they have supported it until then.

However, they will fight to retain their power and positions, and the destruction of the US State will likely lead to the enshrinement of corporate power, wealth and struggle.

It could result in a feudal system in which ‘the Barons’ of industry fight over property, without the obligation the real Barons had to provide any ‘protection’ for the people. There will be nothing to constrain pollution or ecological destruction, or to counter act against the power of riches – except The Market – and the conveyance of elites to Mars -which will not be a pleasant life either.

However, a likely unexpected consequence of these policies, could be that the capitalist market falls apart, because ordinary people do not have the money to drive production… Can capitalism as we know it survive without a relatively well off working class, with the rich just serving each other? I don’t know. It will be a different type of organisation, perhaps again if it encourages mass die off, then it might survive going to Mars….

What happens after the elites hit Mars, is anyone’s guess.

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Trump tariffs and the world economy

April 4, 2025

Economies are complex systems. Predicting what will happen is a fraught occupation. As you will know it seems easy for economists to say that the economy will boom, or is now stable, just before it collapses.

However, it seems pretty safe to say that a major set of disruptions, such as the huge tariffs that Trump has imposed on many countries, including allies, could lead to chaos and collapse.
Militarily, it makes visible what some have been saying for a while, that the US under Trump is not a reliable ally and you should shift your alliances elsewhere. If so, that shifts balances of power away from the USA.

If he has exempted Russia from tariffs but put them on Ukraine, as I have read, then that gives another reason why people will not trust him as a military ally.

In Australia it is quite obvious that the tariffs have been place on weird locations, such as uninhabited islands, or Norfolk Island which at the moment seems to have no trade with US at all [1], [2]. It seems that officially figures were calculated by subtracted US imports from a countries exports and declaring that this had to have something to do with tariffs [3] [4], . This is complete Rubbish. The American people may not be informed by their media, but business people will know the figures are essentially random and there for punishment’s sake.

This fragility of purpose and calculation, may cause people to evaluate the US as a “basket case” and shift trade into non US dollars, or provoke the Chinese to sell part of their dollar reserve. This would have huge effects on American Power, status, and currency stability, as the dollar is potentially sold off everywhere.

The Tariffs will massively boost price increases in the USA in time. Sensible US companies will have bought excess products to help them with the price increases over the last couple of months, but that will only last for a time and some of them will use the tariffs to excuse price rises. This is called ‘replacement costs.’

As a result, people in the US will pretty certainly be paying more for almost everything soon. This probably will not trouble the top 5% income and wealth owners, but it will trouble most other people.
Farmers will also go bust because of the scrapping of USAID which bought billions of products from them [5], [6]. However, this will allow large US landowners to displace even more ordinary farmers.

Exports will probably crash, because people elsewhere on the planet, will resist buying American products (I might even stop using Amazon) and most countries will boost their tariffs against American products or seek out products from elsewhere, because no one knows what else Trump will do in the future. This wrecking of exports will further depress wages, and add to suffering.

The tariffs will possibly be hugely beneficial to China who will likely become the center of a new world trade order – the US has handed China the renewables market already,

My feeling is that seeing trade with the USA collapse, American companies will not find it that attractive to return to the USA. But if they do, they will likely build up to date fully automated factories, that will not increase the employment of ordinary workers. If they hire anyone it will be at the basic wage, and you will likely have full time employment with food and housing insecurity for most people.

Education will have collapsed, except for the rich. It will no longer lead to good jobs, just to people who support right wing ideology which will be all that can be taught, so ignorance will increase. It is debatable if a modern economy can survive mass ignorance – we shall see.

Then of course you have to face increased climate change. With Trump doing everything he can to destroy the environment (even banning paper straws!! [7]), the world condition will get much worse than it could have. However, the USA will probably encounter mass poisonings as it becomes legal to dump almost anything in poor areas where people cannot afford the law. Lack of stability in the climate/ecology, with wild storms overwhelming what can be insured, will also curtail economic stability, so the results of Trump’s presidency will pile up, and be unlikely to be beneficial for most people.

The outlook is not good because of many Trump induced factors, but, as I said, its complex and I could be wrong.

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Are Trump voters responsible for him being anti-democracy and destroying the country?

February 17, 2025

No.

All 77,302,580 Trump voters do not have to support Trump’s moves for anti-democracy and destroying the country.

As far as I know Trump never campaigned saying he is anti-democracy and aimed at destroying the country. So few people. who voted for him were voting for that.

Trump also did not get 50% of the total electorate voting for him, he even got less than 50% of those who did vote. Other Presidents have had much bigger majorities in the Electoral College, and it did not stop them being opposed. There was no landslide of support.

So Trump can have lied (surprise!), or completely misunderstood what he is doing (Surprise!!!!). And, sadly with high-rating 100% pro-Trump media, many people may never have encountered the truth of what he promised to do.

So, lets ignore the fact that he threatened to terminate the constitution to prevent him from losing elections, and promised to be a dictator. People were told this was exaggerated or even lies, despite being truth. We cannot blame people for believing what trusted sources tell them repeatedly. This is unfortunately how people work, when they cannot have had experience.

My argument is that Trump does not know, or understand, what he is doing is bad. He may even be completely well-intentioned in his actions.

The problem for the USA is that Trump is a corporate boss, with no adult experience of being anything else.

Bosses never have to deal with democracy. They can more or less do what they like to their workers, to their company and to their property. They can betray and deceive other people. If they have influence and personal riches they can get away with almost anything (as Trump has), unless corporations of equal power get in the way.

On top of this, Trump thinks he knows everything. Therefore he does not have to consult or negotiate with anyone. People just have to do what he says, because he is the boss and knows best. People who advise anything else are defining themselves as enemies.

Partly because he is a positive thinker, Trump forbids people to discuss issues he does not like. Events he deliberately ignores did not happen, or will recover by the force of his personality and positive thought. People who do not gush over him and agree to ignore disliked events, are disloyal to America, hence they have to be sacked. Climate change, for example, is not real, or to be mentioned by government departments. Pandemics are likewise not anything people can discuss. This, in his mind, makes America safe again.

You cannot run any non-totalitarian State like that, Especially democratic states. People are supposed to be able to disagree, they are supposed to notice unpleasant events. And even totalitarian States will fail without accurate feedback about the world, because the leader governs in fantasy and nobody who wants to survive can advise the great leader to change their mind or understanding.

Trump is ending democracy not deliberately, but because he does not understand what it needs or how it works. He thinks being a President makes him the unchallenged boss of that country..

Trump also does not understand how social and economic forces work. Again this is partly because he is a boss, and all bosses care about is the bottom line and their profit. This may be fair enough for a company, but Presidents and politicians should consider what is good for most people in the country in the long run. They should not be governing just for personal profit, the profit of shareholders, or for the next quarter. They should be governing for everyone, and for the best possible next 200 years at least.

However, over the last 40 years, for nearly all Republicans, and many Democrats have embraced neoliberalism: “what is good for big business is good for the country.” Which often translates as what is good for bosses is good for the country. If that means lots of homelessness, if that means lots of disease ridden people, if that means low wages and no hope of social mobility no matter how hard you work then, that is the price you pay to support big business and The Market. Trump seems to agree. Anything which might inhibit bosses or profits like Climate Change should be ignored. We should not even prepare for likely future disasters.

So he will continue and intensify the policies that have made America “Second Rate’’ if you will.

In terms of the world. Trump has clearly shown the USA cannot be trusted. He has surrendered to Putin over Ukraine before the negotiations started (breaking his own principle laws of the deal), and without even talking to the Ukrainians, or NATO. The sensible thing for NATO to do is to reject any negotiated solution if it does not include Russian withdrawal and compensation for the damage of the invasion, and to discuss whether to expel the USA from NATO as it clearly considers it is a boss and not a partner. Trump might be happy with the expulsion, but I suspect he will be offended, and that might lead to war, and to American deaths over events that could have been avoided.

His proposal to override Palestinian property rights in Gaza and ethically cleanse Palestinians by force to make money for real estate developers, probably including himself, also demonstrates that he cares nothing for Democracy or poorer people in general. Profit is everything, consequently he is, for neoliberal minds, doing good.

His overseas policies announce that the USA is no longer a force for good, but a force for profit and dictatorship. The free world can no longer be led by the USA. End of story. Maybe Trump wants to be the leader of the autocratic world, and destroy democracy elsewhere as well?

Non of this was known by all Trump voters before the election. In many cases, it could not have been known. As a result, they do not have to support his anti democracy moves or his destruction of the USA. Some of the more badly informed, will continue supporting him, because they do not understand or wish to understand, but it is probable that Trump will continue to lose support as his actions come to affect people, and they lose government support they depended upon, and prices keep rising while wages do not. Most Trump supporters have been deceived, but they it is possible they can start seeing what is happening, and admit to themselves that the deceiver deceived.

That is, unless Democrats drive them away, because its easier to attack supporters than to attack Trump.

Democrats do seem to be that stupid sometimes.

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entropy again

November 20, 2024

The simplest form of what gets called entropy, is the dissipation of energy that occurs every time energy is directed to do some work. Energy gets lost when it is used.

Some, to all, of this dissipated energy cannot be regathered or reused without even more energy use and dissipation. It is not worth the effort.

This means that a system without an ‘outside’ source of energy (eg. a human body without food, the Earth without the sun), will eventually run down. No system can generate enough energy to keep itself going forever, it must take energy in from outside itself. This is why there are no perpetual motion machines.

As all organisms, materials and machines which use energy or direct energy to work or movement, or action etc. dissipate energy, wear out, suffer friction or accidents, do not replicate correctly etc, the idea of entropy is also applied to overall dissipation of ‘order’ or ‘functionality’ in the system or in relationships between participants in the system. Growth and development occurs when there is enough energy available for functional participants to build (often increasingly complex and) functional patterns and relationships.

‘Things’ and systems break down because it eventually takes more energy to maintain them than they can gather or direct to repairs, or there is no easy-enough access to external energy. It points to the idea that if ‘processes’ or things are not maintained and repaired they will eventually fall apart, or otherwise change from their ordered or functional relational states. However if the input and direction of energy can be maintained this is less likely, but accidents and breaks in relationships usually accumulate. Participants can end up building an order which is hostile to them and undermines their attempts to maintain and repair the system to which they belong.

It seems habitual for human organizations to become so complicated and complex as they grow that they expand beyond the ability of humans or machines to maintain or repair the functional relationships between participants (not enough energy or time) and head into collapse or decay, or to some new emergent order (if there is enough energy).

It is in some sense possible that the USA is more likely to breakdown through overwhelming infrastructure (bridge, roads sewage, water supplies, electricity cables, etc) breakdowns and misconnections, than from stupid politics. But stupid politics will not help maintain functional relationships, or will direct energy away from the problems.

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