Clean energy for AI data centers?

While the good versus evil debate continues about artificial intelligence, one of its negative aspects is nearing a solution. That problem is the environmental impact of massive data centers that support AI. Traditional domestic power sources designed for our cities, are being tested when an AI data center moves in. The massive power requirements of these centers can overwhelm existing systems not to mention the impact on the local environement.

Nuclear power plants might be a consideration but they are massive systems that take a decade or more to build and they rely heavily on huge amounts of water for their cooling needs. These nuclear power systems have been in use since 1957 in the U.S.

A newly designed microreactor nuclear power system has been successfully tested, and it could provide the needed power without the drawbacks of traditional nuclear systems. The new designs are much safer, use Low-Enriched Uranium, are easy to build in a factory, can fit on a truck, and use near-zero water. These systems could be ready in the 2027-2030 timeframe.

While a single TRISCO-fueled microreactor is not large enough at 20-50 megawatts to power a large AI datacenter, they can be clustered to scale to the gigawatt needs of these power-hungry installations. This seems to be another area where AI may be replacing many menial jobs while creating other opportunities.

Welcome to the Kakistocracy

The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes roughly 171,000 words in the English language. The term kakistocracy refers to a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. It is not to be confused with kleptocracy which is a government ruled by thieves with a primary goal of stealing the state’s wealth. We also find oligarchy where the government is run by a small elite group of people determined by wealth or family ties. This is similar to plutocracy where all power is concentrated in the hands of the richest class.

So many words to choose from and all would fit POTUS 47 and his political dynasty of family members, misfits, cronies, and sycophants. Never in the 250 years of this great nation’s history has the world seen a more openly corrupt group. The door was first cracked open and then it was removed from its hinges by a corrupt Supreme Court operating under the written guidebook of Project 2025. Through that gaping hole paraded Donald John Trump and his band of merry thieves.

Even JD Vance mused that today, an event like Watergate might not even make the evening news. He argued that if the Watergate scandal happened today, it would be "like a 12-hour news story". He added, "The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy". Vance blamed Nixon’s downfall on his favorite bogeyman, the “deep state”. It’s good to be able to explain everything with the nebulous conspiratorial term, “deep state”.

That Nixon tried to use the C.I.A. to block an F.B.I. investigation of the Watergate break-in of the DNC headquarters is seen by Vance as a big nothing burger. It the nation of Trumpistan, neither the C.I.A. nor the F.B.I. would be bothered as both are ultimately controlled by the president. Vance’s statement serves to only shine a spotlight on the corruption of this administration and how its corruption is accepted by the current GOP. It is business as usual.

Sadly, the current corruption is so common that the perpetrators feel secure in the fact that they can steal as much as they want and the presidential pardon pen can wipe the slate clean. The Trump sons are wheeling and dealing their little hearts out with investments, paid board appointments, and financial maneuvering in advance of high-level government decisions that benefit the companies with which they coincidentally have connections. It will take an army of accountants and lawyers to untangle and prosecute this mess while trying to get around the pardons we know will be coming.

Nothing is more telling than the ongoing disaster we are witnessing for our 250th birthday celebration. It was to have been a bipartisan, decentralized, nationwide grassroots set of events called America 250. Congress approved it and appropriated money for it. That plan has been co-opted by Donald Trump because it was too much about America and not enough about Trump. He has set about rebranding the bipartisan event to be more partisan. He has not only diverted the $100 million of congressional funding for the bipartisan America 250 for his use, but he has also taken their private donations as well.

So far, Freedom 250 has been a bust. Plagued by sparse crowds, state withdrawals, and performer cancellations, pavilions are empty, vendors are confused, and power outages have rained on Trump’s parade. He did manage to book Milli Vanilli. If you forgot, they were the 1998 German pop group who were plagued by scandal when it was discovered that they were lip syncing vocals sung by uncredited session artists. He almost had Vanilla Ice perform but the that performance was cancelled due to bad weather. With Trump’s affinity for his Immigration Customs Enforcement goon squad, I’m sure he was disappointed that he didn’t hear Robert Matthew Van Winkle sing his famous “Ice Ice Baby”.

Yes, Freedom 250 has begun like the destruction of the East Wing of the White House, the war in Iran debacle, the algae-laden reflection pool with peeling blue liner, a couple of failed New Jersey casinos, and a joy ride on Trump Shuttle rolled into one. We are on day 5 of this 16-day celebration. If anyone could screw up a birthday event with a $150 million budget, it’s Donny. Welcome to the kakistocracy.

America the Beautiful

As dysfunctional families go, our American family is rather typical. It is a chaotic mix of overlapping archetypes. We have the matriarchs, the patriarchs, the scapegoats, the enablers, the martyrs, the rebels, cynics and lost children, we have peacemakers, and the much-needed mascots for some comic relief. It is this hodgepodge of mismatched socks that make this country great despite its many flaws.

I will steal a quote I read recently, “If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, drive across it.” This quote ended an editorial about the trials, tribulations, and observations of foreigners here for the FIFA World Cup. It started rather ominously as it mentioned the clash between our recent swing toward isolation where 19 countries faced an outright ban on travel and 20 others ran into pauses on visa applications. Over two dozen players, staff, and officials faced significant travel difficulties. There were the disappointed fans who had spent thousands of dollars for travel, hotels, and tickets, only to find their visas had been denied.

On the brighter side there were those who made it and found the beautiful America we have come to love. There were social media posts of amazement at our landscape, food trucks with fusion cuisine, Texas barbecue and steakhouse fries, Waffle House hash browns, and the wonderment of a Bass Pro Shop. One German fan posted after coming upon a Buc-ee’s, “DUDE LMAO THIS IS A GAS STATION.”

The overwhelming observation was that they were greeted with friendliness and generosity. I have made this same observation many times. I have driven across this country perhaps a dozen times. From Florida to California and back again via Mexico and Canada. Up and down the eastern seaboard from Miami to Nova Scotia. I’ve taken the southern route, northern route, and central route and driven in Hawaii and Alaska. I have been to all 50 states.

I am always amazed when I talk to people who may have otherwise traveled in Europe and Asia or elsewhere in the world, but who have not seen the bounty we have between our two oceans. I remember stopping in a small southern town restaurant for a late lunch and talking to a twenty-something waitress. She said that she had never been outside her hometown except to visit the Walmart in a slightly larger nearby town. She marveled when she saw our maps (this goes back a few years before GPS) and the route highlighted by AAA.

Yes, we need to look up from our everywhere-screens and smell the roses. If the lens through which you view this great country is just the summary of the evening news or the cacophony of disenchanted voices on social media, then I will understand your cynicism. I hope our 250th birthday celebration in just over a week will be cause to set aside our differences and just relish the moment.

When the fireworks light up the sky and the sounds of Stars and Stripes Forever ring out, the goosebumps on the arms of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, liberals, conservatives, and other fine Americans are of equal size. I leave you with a Rodney King quote from 1992, "Can we all just get along?"

Postscript: The accompanying image is a collection of images from a single vacation drive in 2009.

Pool Vandals

I know this president “rested his eyes” while in biology class, so I thought I would provide him with a quick update. You see, blaming an algae bloom on vandals is a bit like his claiming he contracted that venereal disease from a toilet seat. It just doesn’t pass the sniff test, if I can be so gross.

Algae have been a persistent and recurring issue in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool since it was completed in the early 1920s. The broad, shallow (6.75 million-gallon) basin features stagnant water and acts as an optimal biological incubator for rapid algae blooms when combined with Washington, D.C.'s hot summer weather and high levels of sunlight.

If Trump had stayed awake in that biology class or knew just a little about the field of water resources and environmental engineering, he might have realized it was time to consult with an expert. He might have known a simple “nano bubbler" would be overwhelmed because the pool's outdated and leaking infrastructure, pumps in warm, raw river water that is a constant source of nutrients for algae. This was not a “nano bubble” problem.

This same logical thinking would quickly debunk the Trump attempt to blame vandals for the delamination of the pool liner. No liberal Antifa commando (like Commando Bernie) entered the pool under the cover of darkness to cut a 275-foot slit in the pool liner. No newsman in a suit ruined your multi-million dollar no-bid project. No bicyclist stopping by for a look at the liner already documented to be floating in the algae, caused the liner to fail. It was a rushed inexperienced contractor who didn’t do the job properly.

I leave you with a line from Bob Dylan’s 1965 Subterranean Homesick Blues, “The pump don’t work ‘cause the vandals took the handle.” That line acts as a metaphor as it symbolizes societal decay, deliberate sabotage, and broken systems

MAGA, AMERICA’S BREXIT

Most know of Great Britain’s break with the European Union referred to as Brexit. One decade ago, Britain voted to leave the EU to go it alone. The exit took four years to implement. The chief architect of Brexit was Boris Johnson, Donald Trump’s doppelganger. A key motivation in this British effort was an attempt to better control immigration and manage its borders. A former Conservative prime minister from the 1990s recently summarized the result, “Brexit has left Britain poorer, weaker, and locked out of the richest free trade market in history.” It is estimated that, because of Brexit, the UK GDP is lower by around 7% costing each person about 3,300 pounds ($4,375) each year.

Brexit has clear parallels with today’s conservative MAGA and America First anti-globalist movement, especially its focus on border control and restrictive immigration policies. A century has passed since the United States embraced strict isolationism in the 1920s and 1930s. That isolationist turn helped deepen the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939 and brought mass unemployment, severe deflation, and thousands of bank failures. Protectionist tariffs further intensified the crisis by contributing to a collapse in international trade.

If you read that last paragraph and didn’t see history repeating itself under our conservative MAGA king Don, I think your Kool Aid needs a refill. It has been a century since an American isolationist resolve brought about catastrophe. That experiment with isolation ended with a world war and extreme sacrifices of blood and treasure. In the UK, their more modern isolationist effort has been by most estimates, a failure. Over half of Britons polled would like to undo Brexit and rejoin the EU.

Is it too late for America? Has the die been cast? Certainly, much damage has been done and some of it will take decades to repair. We will be paying the bill for this “administrative cock-up” to use an informal British phrase describing a bureaucratic blunder and gross mismanagement through systemic failure, disorganized process and avoidable mistakes with real-world impact. Trust the Brits to have a simple reference like “cock-up” for organizational disaster. They’ve certainly had some experience. America joins them and may have outdone them this time around.

Answering the question of “too late” we have the upcoming midterms where we can try to right the ship and stop taking on water. A democratic win in the House will slow the damage and a democratic majority in both houses will go a long way to getting the bilge pumps operational. None of which is to claim that Democrats have the answer, they just seem to do less damage.

It’s Time To Strike a Happy Medium

Somewhere between the typical government bureaucracy that bogs things down and, “everything is a national emergency,” lies the middle ground of where we should strive to be. The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool debacle is a microcosm of what lies at the heart of a long-standing problem. No lives were lost in this one and the errant decisions didn’t cause global grief, but it typifies the knee-jerk reaction of a man with no experience in government.

While we would never ask a 35-year-old natural-born citizen of the United States who has lived here at least 14 years with no other skills or education to take over as CEO of a large business, those are the only qualifications needed to run the nation. It’s sort of a, “President Wanted, no experience necessary, will train” situation when it comes to selecting the Commander-in-Chief of the United States. We have higher job requirements for a child’s nanny than we demand of the person who must look out for over 340 million souls.

Running a business and running a government are two very different things. There is a reason why our government has RFIs and RFPs. Those are Request for Information and Request for Proposal. The former is where the government doesn’t have enough expertise to spell out the solution to a problem and asks those with such expertise to offer solutions. The government can then use those responses to develop a Request for Proposal so vendors can bid on the proposed project with clear specs. A qualified low bidder gets the requisition to satisfy the RFP.

Had the government used this normal process, their chances at a properly functioning reflecting pool would have been much better. Following established government policies and procedures might have avoided the war in Iran, tariffs might or might not have been implemented, the east wing of the White House might still be standing, and a proper plan and budget for a new ballroom might be on the horizon.

The conclusion here is that, perhaps we should move the limbo bar up a notch concerning the minimum qualifications to be president. Certainly, we need better restraints on what qualifies as a “national emergency.” Somewhere there is a happy medium.

Reflections

We've all had a good laugh at the expense of our Soylent Green Commander-in-Chief and his failed attempt to "fix" the Washington Monument Reflecting Pool. There is a technical explanation to why it failed. Had the president bothered to take the time (About 5 seconds of my time, your mileage may vary), he might have found out why his "I know a guy" solution might not work.

The ozone micro/nanobubblers struggle to keep up because the pool is an enormous, shallow, and sunlit body of water that is constantly fed by a century-old plumbing system. The technology cannot outpace the blooms due to several compounding factors:

Contaminated Supply Lines: When the system is turned on, stagnant, algae-filled water from the dormant, underground piping system gets pushed directly into the pool, introducing an explosive seed source.

Pool Thermodynamics: The pool is shallow, exposed to direct D.C. summer sunlight, and heavily absorbs heat. The darker "American flag blue" paint used in recent renovations makes the water noticeably warmer, which speeds up algae growth.

Scale and Demand: The pool holds over 6 million gallons of water. The nanobubblers work by creating oxidizing agents, but their capacity is continuously overwhelmed by the massive amount of organic material and nutrients present in the unfiltered river water.

Underlying Root Causes: Ozone bubbles are excellent at killing existing algae, but they do not remove the source nutrients (like phosphorus and nitrogen) that feed the algae in the first place, allowing new blooms to outpace the treatment.

He is No Grace Hopper

If you don’t know about Grace Hopper, you probably never worked in the computer field. Grace Hopper was a computer scientist, mathematician, and a rear admiral in the United States Navy. She created the first working compiler and programming language called FLOW-MATIC which was used as the foundation for COBOL. COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), is still the hidden backbone of global enterprise infrastructure that manages 80% of today’s in-person banking activities handling over $3 trillion in daily commerce.

It was Rear Admiral Grace Hopper who famously said, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.” This philosophy, aka Hopper’s Law, was to be adopted to cut through stifling bureaucracies to take the initiative, using calculated risks, to get the job done.

I doubt President Trump knows anything about Grace Hopper, but he has recklessly adopted her philosophy without implementing it as intended. You see, while Hopper’s Law inspired initiative, it was to be used for agile problem solving and not for major issues with significant consequences. It was intended for times when you genuinely believe you are right and are willing to take responsibility for failure. Be prepared to own your mistakes.

Hopper’s Law works if you are smart and have analyzed a problem sufficiently to assess the consequences of your actions. It is not a platform for reckless behavior. Grace Hopper would never have invaded Iran and risked global economic damage and the loss of lives. She would not have destabilized the American and global economies with a maze of fluctuating tariffs. Grace Hopper would not have said, “I know a guy,” when it came to repairing a national monument like the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. She would never have destroyed the east wing of the White House, the people’s house, to build a ballroom in her honor.

No, Donald Trump is no Grace Hopper.

Postscript: While Hopper was working on a malfunctioning Mark II Computer at Harvard University, she and her associates found a moth stuck in a relay that was impeding its proper functioning. She had found a “bug in the system.” They attached the dead moth to their work log with their report. She had “debugged” a computer.

Welcome to Dystopia

With increased frequency, I hear comparisons of George Orwell’s novel 1984, and the reality of today. It seems that modern society mirrors much of the dystopian horror envisioned by Orwell as we endure ubiquitous surveillance, political distortions of language for political advantage, and the twisted manipulation of information so that it no longer resembles truth. Orwell’s citizens of Oceana were subjected involuntarily to surveillance while todays society freely shares its private data in exchange for convenience and entertainment.

In 1984 we had the Thought Police. In 2026 we have big tech data brokers. In the novel there were government telescreens that monitored all activity, where here in the present we have public and private CCTV supplemented by millions of smartphone cameras and GPS locators. The 1984 Ministry of Truth deleted and rewrote historical archives and today we have a government banning books, removing historical references, removing laws and regulations that even use certain words like woke, equity, or human rights. That government also uses propaganda machines to create deep fakesand fake news to feed algorithmic echo chambers. In both the novel and modern reality, we see the essence of 1984’s “Newspeak” redefining language to fit a desired narrative.

While 1984 used actual physical torture, terror campaigns, and food rationing to demand compliance, today’s compliance methodology uses wage restrictions, high priced education, with limited access to healthcare to achieve the same goal and advance income disparity. In 1984, citizens were forced to take two minutes out of their day for “Two Minutes Hate,” during which time they were forced to watch videos of state enemies and express rage.

Today we willingly watch our televisions and smartphones for “Hours of Hate.” The only difference seems to be that we can either support our Big Brother government or maintain our sanity in opposition. We have a president whose use of "doublethink" (holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously) is a regular part of every day dialogue. We are subjected to his spoken or tweeted doublethink sometimes in the same stream of consciousness. We have arrived at the predicted 1984 dystopian world via a slightly different path with a similar outcome.

A similar analogy could be made to Aldous Huxley’s 1932 Brave New World. Huxley more accurately predicted a world controlled by pleasure, convenience, and endless consumerism. Huxley’s government provided a drug called "soma" to help avoid sadness, anxiety, and to prevent deep reflection. In the twenty-first century we have social media algorithms that also deliver micro doses of dopamine to “dopeify” the masses.

I often feel that I am living in a Cliff Notes combined analyses of 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Soylent Green, Brazil, Fahrenheit 451, Mad Max, Lord of the Flies, and Hunger Games.

Out of Balance; The New Roaring Twenties?

Nature teaches us balance. Nothing is wasted: one organism’s byproducts become another’s source of life. When predator populations grow too large, dwindling prey eventually reduces their numbers. In nature, the well-being of the whole community depends on the well-being of each individual, creating an inherent equilibrium.

Nature and capitalism operate by different rules. Nature tends toward balance, while capitalism pushes toward continual growth. Without moral limits, capitalism can become a self-reinforcing cycle in which wealth creates more wealth at an accelerating pace. In an unrestrained market, individual and corporate success are measured by growth, often without regard for broader social needs. Where scarcity in nature forces adjustment, scarcity in capitalism raises prices: if the Strait of Hormuz closes, oil becomes scarce and fuel costs rise.

In unregulated capital markets, pollution can become profitable for corporations while imposing costs on others. Resource exploitation may also exceed nature’s capacity to recover. Only human morality—expressed through cultural, legal, and ethical limits—can restrain capitalism and prevent the reckless exploitation of society and the natural world. Left unchecked, raw capitalism follows supply and demand while disregarding the common good.

The Great Depression was driven in large part by unregulated capitalism, unchecked market speculation, an underregulated banking system, and widening wealth inequality. Protectionism made matters worse: the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 triggered retaliatory tariffs around the world and helped bring the Roaring Twenties to an end. The depression lasted from 1929 to 1939, ending only as the United States mobilized for World War II.

Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the First New Deal in 1933 and the Second New Deal in 1935. These landmark reforms created safeguards such as the FDIC to protect bank deposits, jobs through the Civilian Conservation Corps, Social Security as a safety net for older adults and people with disabilities, and the National Labor Relations Act to protect workers’ right to unionize. Together, they placed moral limits on unchecked capitalism.

Today, we again seem to be living through a new “Roaring Twenties,” marked by extreme wealth inequality, corporate greed, and renewed efforts to deregulate capitalism. Given our president’s character, it is hard to trust that morality guides his decisions. He has revived protectionist tariffs reminiscent of Herbert Hoover’s Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which helped cut global trade by two-thirds. By repealing Dodd-Frank, he removed financial guardrails and increased the risk of another crisis. He has also entered an unwinnable war with Iran, pursued a questionable “deal” to end it, and advanced corruption “like the world has never seen.”

The morality of capitalism is a complex debate. Its defenders argue that free markets are moral because they rely on voluntary exchange and create prosperity. This form of largely unchecked capitalism, often called neoliberalism, emphasizes free markets, limited government intervention, and individual liberty. That argument might be more persuasive if the playing field were level and the system not rigged. Left alone, capitalism can reward selfishness, deepen inequality, and enable exploitation.

Evidence of a rigged system appears in the recent financial gains of Donald Trump and his immediate family. Don Jr.’s reported net worth has increased sixfold in the past year, from $50 million to $300 million, while Eric’s has risen tenfold, from $40 million to $400 million. Jared Kushner’s wealth is tied to a private equity firm backed by Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Donald Trump’s own finances remain less clear, though many estimates suggest his net worth increased by $1.7 billion over the past year.

The stock market crash of the last century began on October 24, 1929—Black Thursday. October 24, 2029, falls on a Wednesday. Let’s hope history chooses a different color.

Oink, Oink

I saw the accompanying cute picture of a pig next to the innocuous title: What the Cult of Efficiency Costs Us. This was in my New York Times of June 14, 2026. The article was written by Ezra Klein. I saved the picture as a possible contender for something I would write in the future, but at the last minute I delved into the article. That Cult of Efficiency title hadn’t grabbed me but that pig was just too cute.

The article began quoting a politician’s commencement address. “You are about to step out into a world that prizes efficiency and the annihilation of drift and friction above all else,” he said. “Our entire economy is built on rewarding companies that are efficient at making a profit, not based upon how they treat their workers, the social value of their product or the impact they have on the community.”

He then went on to get into this “cult of efficiency.” He used an example from the Victorian era where bakers, attempting to get the most bread from a given amount of wheat, would “stretch” the wheat by adding chalk or gypsum. The baker got more bread to sell even if his customers were eating powdered rock. They also cut corners by whitening the bread with alum which harms adults and can kill children. They were more efficient, but at what cost.

Then the article got to the crux of the matter and why there was a cute pig sniffing a daisy as an image. It went on to describe ballot initiatives passed by voters in Californian and Massachusetts in 2016 and 2018, which banned the sale of pork from pigs confined to gestation crates where these 400-to-500-pound animals are kept in cages two-by-seven feet wide and long. The sows cannot walk or even turn around. They can spend years in these crates where they can give birth and often, within a month, they are reimpregnated. These intelligent and social animals are now more productive, but at what ethical cost.

It was estimated that the cost of pork went up a bit but some of that cost reflected the initial cost of rebuilding infrastructure. Knowing this, the citizens of two states thought the ethical treatment of these animals was worth it. These laws also meant that pork producers in other states had to comply or not sell their products in these two states. They took the matter to the Supreme Court and lost. They then turned to congress.

Now, tucked into a farm bill, is “The Save Our Bacon Act” designed to allow pork producers to sell their products across state lines, ignoring the will of the citizens who had voted as described above. The pork industry is pushing to lift their restrictions and their end around is now through congress.

A 2022 poll found that 83% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans felt that animal cruelty was a moral concern for them. These same numbers held in California for Prop 12 that supported the ethical treatment of pigs. Congress should not be able to override the will of the people. You would think that if anyone could identify with the pigs, it would be congress.

Every Despot Has A Silver Lining

As a child growing up in Miami in the 50s, I remember the first time I heard of a plane hijacking. I then remember the second and the third time some person wanted to commandeer a commercial plane to take them where they wanted to go, often to Cuba. I also remember asking my dad why the airlines didn’t just install secure doors to keep out the hijackers. It was explained that it would be expensive to do this for the thousands of planes and that, most often, they got the planes returned. It was always about the money. Then came 9-11 and suddenly the cost of secure doors seemed paltry.

Ours is a capitalist society so almost everything gets viewed through that lens. If you want to understand something, follow the money. Fast forward to today and the oil crisis that has been brought on by the Iran war. One stupid act and the frailty of our energy ecosystem is at the fore. Suddenly gas prices, food prices, heating bills, cooling bills, and all things that rely on cheap energy cost more.

I say all of this in the context of our MAGA-Republican leader, and his aversion to renewable energy. Like Big Tobacco before it, Big Oil has the money and power to hold this billionaire president’s attention. During his 2024 campaign, Trump asked the fossil fuel industry for $1 billion in campaign funding.

Harold Hamm (Continental Resources), Kelcy Warren (Energy Transfer Partners), Jeffery Hildebrand (Hilcorp Energy), and George Bishop (GeoSouthern Energy) all became mega doners. With cash in hand Donald Trump fast-tracked drilling projects, nullified environmental rules, froze clean energy federal permits for wind and solar projects, terminated billions in green technology grants and tax subsidies, paid energy companies to halt offshore wind developments to reinvest in fossil fuels, froze federal permitting for wind projects, and cancelled the five-year offshore energy leasing schedule. To say that Donald Trump has gone all in for Big Oil would be a gross understatement.

Where’s the silver lining? Obviously, it was not his intent, but Donald Trump may have advanced the cause of renewable energy more than any previous president. The Iran war and subsequent oil shocks have significantly advanced the cause of renewable energy. This one geopolitical crisis has shifted focus to fossil fuel avoidance. Countries are aggressively moving toward electrification and there is a shift in energy paradigms. It is becoming increasingly clear that, once you build a renewable installation you help avoid being bound to the unpredictable and volatile pricing of fossil fuels.

Could this war with Iran have the unintended consequence of promoting a shift to renewable energy? Could this be the 9-11 impetus toward energy independence in the name of national security? This war has shown that, contrary to the claims that America is energy independent, we still live in a world where oil is a global commodity.

Does MAGA Understand Income Disparity

By at least one calculation I found, approximately 35% of Donald Trump supporters have incomes below $50,000. This means one-third of MAGA comes from lower or lower-middle-income brackets. The largest share of Trump supporters are middle-class and make between $50,000 and $100,000. Collectively, about 60% of Donald Trump voters in the general election earn less than $100,000. Many are blue-collar workers and most are hourly wage earners. Understandably, members in this middle to lower income class group have lower education levels reflecting the national education averages.

All this means is that, Donald Trump owes his presidency to the support of average Americans, most of whom are not millionaires. Without their support, Donald Trump would be just another billionaire playboy and self-promoting businessman.

We are fast approaching the July 4, 2026, 250th birthday of our nation. This date also marks another milestone of equal significance, even if it is an infamous one. Yes, July 4th marks the one-year anniversary of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed into law by President Donald Trump on our nation’s birthday in 2025. This legislation represents the foundation of his second-term agenda. With this one bill he elevated his wealthy friends with significant individual and estate tax provisions and paid for it by cutting services to the folks who got him elected. He doesn’t need them anymore. Like any good conman, many don’t even realize they have been screwed, again.

With major cuts to healthcare and social services, he was able to pay for huge permanent tax benefits for the rich. He also paid for these cuts by plunging the nation deeper into debt to the point that the debt total now exceeds the Gross Domestic Product. The GDP is 102% of annual GDP.

In the words of Tennessee Ernie Ford singing Sixteen Tons, you are now:

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

For those unfamiliar with the term “company store,” it was the only place miners could buy essentials, and it was owned by their employer. These workers lived in isolated mining towns and the company store created a cycle of debt bondage. Workers were not paid in U.S. currency but with script that was good only at the “company store.” With low wages and high living costs, miners were forced to borrow against future wages to survive and ended up in perpetual debt.

America is seeing the latest incarnation of the company store in the machinations of the Trump government, part of which was brought about through the OBBBA. That Act expanded macroeconomic debt by shifting the financial burdens from individuals (read wealthy individuals) to future generations (read poor and middle income). While fundamentally different forms of economic coercion and leverage, the OBBBA still accomplishes the same goal of expanding the income disparity gap.

When tax structures shift away from the wealthy and toward the middle class, the burden of paying off the national debt is primarily absorbed by middle- and working-class wage earners through a combination of increased broad-based taxes, higher consumer prices, and the economic fallout of reduced government services.

In simple terms that don’t require an understanding of macroeconomics, if you derive your income through wages and not from capital gains and investment assets, you are being fleeced by the Trump administration. You are paying for his ballroom, his Trump Arch, his personal ICE Army, his no-bid contracts, his bitcoins, his real estate deals, his corporate and personal favors, and all manner of wasteful spending, whenever you fill your tank, buy groceries, or pay for goods that cost more due to his tariffs. Your children will be paying off his largesse long after he is but a memory in history books.

This is Trump’s second and final term in office, and he is feathering his own nest. To quote his wife’s jacket, "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" To quote the president directly, “I love inflation.” He later tried to clarify this by saying that he was glad it wasn’t higher than it was. He should be reminded, when you are in a hole, stop digging.

I leave you with the beloved Popeye the Sailor cartoon character, J. Wellington Wimpy, whose famous line was, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

The Greatest President of All Time

The GOAT in the American presidential arena must go to William Henry Harrison. This is not because of his accomplishments, but for what he didn’t do. He basically did no wrong. On March 4, 1841, he gave the longest inaugural address in history lasting almost two hours. He did this in the bitter cold without a hat or coat, caught pneumonia, and died 31 days later.

During this “killer speech,” he pledged to limit himself to one term. He declared that the power to make laws belonged solely to Congress. He pushed for reform of civil service appointments and argued against the mass firing of government workers to reward political allies. This was common practice under the “Spoils System” of the era. He argued against strict partisanship as this could shift the power away from the people. He promised to limit his veto power for times when proposed legislation was clearly unconstitutional and not just contrary to presidential opinion.

Had President Harrison fulfilled his term and held to his pronounced ideology, he would have been the polar-opposite of Donald J. Trump. He would have been Trump’s doppelganger whose only similarity would be the presidential mantle. Harrison despised the executive tyranny of Andrew Jackson who repeatedly defied the Supreme Court and constitutional norms and pioneered the spoils system of political patronage.

Harrison and Trump have one more similarity beyond their title. They both came from wealthy families and campaigned as rugged, relatable, everyday “men of the people.” Harrison was perhaps the first to create an image-making machine to work against his wealthy Virginia aristocratic origins, to rebrand himself as a humble, frontier-dwelling war hero. His campaign was called “Log Cabin and Hard Cider.”

Trump pulled off his rebranding with anti-establishment rhetoric posing as an existential threat to the political status quo. Unlike Harrison, Trump leveraged his billionaire background as proof he was smart and couldn’t be bought. Little did people know that billionaires are often never satisfied with their obscene wealth and, like other addictions, that thirst for wealth is insatiable. He could be bought, over and over.

The Trump constituency also failed to realize that clever and smart are not interchangeable. A smart person works through complicated problems with logic and reasoning. A clever person looks for short cuts that may work for a time but, as they were fashioned without proper planning, those shortcuts often fall apart over time. A smart person would not have invaded Iran without a strategy to avoid the pitfalls of the Strait of Hormuz.

While William Henry Harris is the GOAT, the question remains, is Donald John Trump the WOAT? He has some heavy competition in James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce, all of whom were politically pro-slavery. Then there is Warren G. Harding who became synonymous with scandal and corruption.

DJT is not pro-slavery but, for him, a healthy dose of racism, xenophobia, and white nationalism is a good thing. Where DJT fully has the upper hand, is in the scandal and corruption arenas. Harding and his political allies were involved in bribes and interest free loans for the use of naval oil leases, the embezzlement of millions from WWI veterans, kickbacks for construction contracts, black market medical supplies, bribes from bootleggers, and the improper sale of German assets. Such corruption, even allowing for inflation, pales next to the billions the Trump family alone has grifted from the American taxpayers.

On the scandal front, Harding only had two mistresses and one child out of wedlock. Both mistresses were adults. Compared to DJT, Harding gets a Disney PG rating. We need look no further than the Epstein files to show that Trump wins the scandal challenge hands down.

It remains to be seen if DJT can eventually walk away with the presidential title of WOAT but, barring some last minute Anakin Skywalker-Darth Vader reversal of evil intent, I think he has this one in the bag. I’m afraid that this Ebenezer Scrooge could be visited by a hundred and three ghosts and would emerge on Christmas Day stealing the goose, foreclosing on the town, and kicking Tiny Tim down a flight of stairs.

Spectator Sport

The presidency of the United States has been turned into a spectator sport. In the center ring is the self-anointed King, Donald Trump. He is surrounded by an ever-changing cast of characters who are both excited and fearful as they walk on eggshells dreading the king’s wrath. Gone are the days when, if someone asked you to name the president, it would probably take your brain at least a second to think before answering. This would be because you hadn’t heard that name in several days. You certainly wouldn’t have heard it ten or twenty times a day for his entire term.

Always the self-promoter, the president has seen fit to demolish a wing of the White House, repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool flag-blue (he wanted turquoise), turn the Oval Office into a gaudy throne room an Arab sheik would envy, open a new car dealership of Tesla’s on the South Lawn of the White House, and now we see an obscene 90-foot-tall, 600-ton structure known as “The Claw,” being erected on that same South Lawn to hold a private for-profit fighting event. This event will celebrate the president’s birthday on June 14th.

The Claw arena was originally built in Germany and Belgium and is designed after similar “Claws” used for things like U-2 concerts. This private for-profit event will have its $60 million construction costs paid by the promoters, but the taxpayers will be on the hook for the estimated $10-$12 million security bill. All profits generated from ticket sales, sponsorships, and pay-per-view broadcasts go entirely to the UFC and its parent company, TKO Group Holdings (the CEO is Dana White who is a personal friend of Donald Trump). The public, up to 85,000, can see the event for free on giant screens at Ellipse Park but reserved South Lawn seating is for VIPs only. Those run $1.5 million each for a “Sponsorship Package.” You can also watch the event on tv but only with a Paramount+ subscription.

Viewing the U.S. presidency as a spectator sport describes a cultural shift where national politics are a passive entertainment event. It is reality television on the world stage. There are elements of The Kardashians, Love Island (Epstein), and Survivor (cabinet). Congress is the Antiques Roadshow. The president’s designer ambitions are a blend of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Pimp My Ride. Does anyone also see the Trump cabinet as an extension of The Apprentice, aka You’re Fired?

Yes, the so-called “Gamification of Politics” has enhanced tribalism to a scale seen often with sports franchise fans. There is a “my team” mentality that emphasizes winning over bipartisan consensus or legislative process. The persona of Donald Trump has taken his television entertainment experience to blend governance with the cult of celebrity. He works on playing to the crowd to score political points. The polls are his Nielson ratings, and right now his Survivor: Straight of Hormuz show, is clogging the toilet.

Civic engagement and interest are now more national than local. State and local politics are of interest only as they influence national politics. Often, state elections involve donations where up to two-thirds come from individuals outside the state. Our reality TV president is the main attraction. Like reality TV, he strives to entertain rather than inform. Keeping Up with the Trumpians is a full-time job.

AMERICAN HUSTLE

American Hustle is the name of a 2013 dark-comedy crime film. The story was based on the real events of ABSCAM, an FBI sting operation at the end of the 1970s. That investigation led to the corruption and bribery convictions of seven members from both houses of the U.S. Congress and five local politicians.

We will likely never see such an operation in the future. At the time, the thin tightrope between entrapment and exposing existing corruption was part of the defense strategy. That ethical dilemma was studied after ABSCAM to address whether the sting uncovered corruption or actively manufactured it. All entrapment issues were dismissed by the courts and the convictions were upheld.

ABSCAM used a real swindler and international conman, Mel Weinberg, who used a fictional Arabian company called Abdul Enterprises, to offer bribes to politicians for immigration favors, building permits, and licenses for casinos in Atlantic City. For the first time in history, the FBI used videotapes of the bribe transactions. Both the FBI and the Justice Department cooperated in ABSCAM.

I said earlier that we will probably never see such a successful prosecution of political corruption again. This is not because it isn’t still going on, but that it has now been legitimized so much that even the president of the United States can flaunt his corruption. What used to be considered illegal is now SOP for many. As a politician, you can receive a “campaign donation” of almost unlimited size and then openly do favors for the donor. Politicians can make financial investments in businesses over which they have legislative influence without concern for prosecution.

All of what I said about being exempt from prosecution in the preceding paragraph assumes you are in the good political graces of our authoritarian leader. He controls both the FBI and the DOJ, both of whom were pivotal in the ABSCAM cases. If you raise the ire of the president, you can count on at least being charged with such crimes even if you are innocent. I will point out in passing that of the twelve convictions from ABSCAM in the 80s, all but one was a Democrat. The lone Republican was Richard Kelly of Florida. There was also one INS inspector of unknown party affiliation.

So, the American Hustle continues, only this time it is the American public being hustled. The FBI and the DOJ have been usurped. Stay on the president’s good side and he will have your back. He seems to have a special affinity for those convicted of fraud or tax evasion, perhaps because he understands those “crimes” so well.