I just met an interesting fellow who introduced himself as “Marc Pierre,” with a readily discernable French accent. When I asked if he was in fact French, his face lit up, as if to say, “How could you have possibly known that?” Apparently, he hadn’t expected too much from us provincials.
He’s an international accountant hailing originally from the south of France, but one who’s also lived in the UAE and Mauritius, only to wind up in our small town here in Central California, where, to be honest, perhaps one in fifty of us could find Mauritius on a globe.
When the conversation turned to politics, he told me what I’ve heard almost exclusively from well educated and well traveled professionals: they are astonished at what has become of the United States, and terrified with what it means for the world as a whole.
His main issue is that Trump clearly has no clue as to what he is doing, and about half of Americans couldn’t care less. They’re fine on the consequences of their president’s making uninformed decisions on things like NATO, tariffs, and the like that are wreaking economic mayhem on themselves and on nations around the globe.
“He has no idea what he’s talking about. Doesn’t that scare you?”
Ah, yes. Indeed it does. Thanks for pointing that out.
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 that 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 must 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 that believe that Trump is our savior, like the author of the meme above.
Good to see John Eastman disbarred in California; it’s a small measure of justice.
Criminal prosecution in the future?
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