A study by Diana C. Mutz published in a preprint version on April 23, 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) argues that the votes by white, relatively well-to-do, but poorly educated Americans for Donald J. Trump were motivated by a perceived threat to their status rather than economic hardships. This quote summarizes the significance of the research findings:
Using a representative panel from 2012 to 2016, I find that change in financial wellbeing had little impact on candidate preference. Instead, changing preferences were related to changes in the party’s positions on issues related to American global dominance and the rise of a majority–minority America: issues that threaten white Americans’ sense of dominant group status.
The people who voted for Mr. Trump were seen in this research to be motivated by status anxiety rather than economic anxiety– that is, they feared that their dominant group status as “white” (Anglo-Saxon, mostly Protestant and male) was in danger from “non-white” (Mexican, Latin American, African-American, even Asian– and female) groups who threaten to eliminate their privileges (which they do not perceive as privileges, merely their rightful place in society) by supporting policies like “affirmative action”, “transgender human rights” and “equal pay for equal work.” In addition, we elsewhere see that poorly educated people respond to perceived threats (and actual disdain) from better educated and inevitably more “liberal” or at least tolerant people, by demeaning the value of education and even the precedence of “facts” or science.
These reactionary trends among “whites” who felt their dominant status to be threatened, especially by an African-American president and his administration, resulted in a better showing in the 2016 presidential election than was expected by those who could see that Mr. Trump is a narcissistic, threatening, constantly lying bully whose claims to business success were completely fabricated. The people who were aware of the claims of Mr. Trump’s venality, and believed them, could not understand how others could vote for him.
The explanation as to why 46% of the electorate voted for this damaged candidate lies in the policies and position statements he endorsed: first, a view that nonwhite people and women were threatening to do away (unfairly, from their point of view) with the dominant status of white males (probably accurate), and second, the perception (completely belied by the actual facts) that immigrants, both legal and illegal, were threatening to inundate the United States with nonwhite individuals and destroy its most cherished institutions. A policy of relying on wealthy white males (those who coincidentally fawned upon him) for positions in his election campaign and later, in his administration, shows that Mr. Trump believes that only wealthy white males are worthy of exercising power and influence.
[I should note that the Russians interfered subtly in the election and it is impossible to determine to what extent– that is, what percent voted differently than they otherwise would have because of Russian Facebook ads and other tricks– and whether the outcome would have been different without Russian “help”. There is some argument that Russian Facebook ads merely reinforced tendencies that were already present in susceptible individuals.]
The idea that the dominance of white males is unjustly under threat is a conservative one, and the other policies that Mr. Trump endorses show an equally conservative tone. For example, the administration has been reported to be returning to teaching secondary school students a form of sex education known as “abstinence-only”. This teaching holds that contraception is ineffective and in any case unnecessary when youths refrain from sexual activity entirely, presumably until marriage. Thus contraception, if discussed, is described as undesirable (from a moral point of view.)
Unfortunately, scientific research has shown that “abstinence-only” sex education is totally ineffective in preventing or reducing pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases among youth. This research is completely ignored or even ridiculed by the proponents of “abstinence-only”. It would seem that the actual prevalence of sexual activity and the issue of whether the education is in any way effective is secondary to the appearance of sexual propriety and the support of conservative taboos on sexual activity by school personnel. This sort of blinkered thinking is typical of those whose dominance is threatened by the facts.
I digress. The point is that the Trump candidacy was tailored to appeal to a certain type of voter: conservative, closet racists and homophobes. It’s time that they admitted that. Because I think a pretty good estimate of the prevalence of closet racism in the United States is about 35-40%. I think it’s time that we all admitted that.
It seems that photosynthesis only has an eventual efficiency of a fraction of one percent of the energy of sunlight, while solar photovoltaic panels have an efficiency of roughly sixteen percent. Using such panels to power batteries in cars and trucks will eliminate carbon dioxide emissions in transportation, easing the effects of climate change. The other major sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide are the production of cement and deforestation.
This evolution of energy sources for transportation will eliminate the problems of palm oils and corn ethanol as biofuels. Both biofuels are destructive to the environment and compete with food as uses for corn and palm oil. With a population of nearly eight billion already, we need to have maximal efficiency in order to avoid worsening environmental destruction as we feed, clothe, house, and transport all of our people. The development of first-world living standards for all of the people in the world requires maximizing efficiency and eliminating waste in order to prevent excessive destruction of the environment.
The issue of palm oil as a biofuel versus a food and other sources of energy are addressed in the New Scientist article that includes the quote: “Photosynthesis sucks”, attributed to Tim Searchinger of Princeton University.
In reality, as a result of evolution and the competition between plants for maximum efficiency in conversion of solar energy to useful work, photosynthesis has an average efficiency in excess of ninety-nine percent. Most of the energy realized from photosynthesis is actually wasted (on exactly what is yet unknown), although enough is used in converting carbon dioxide to oxygen that, until the appearance of humans, the vast majority of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was scavenged and enough oxygen was produced to increase its atmospheric concentrations to near the flammability limit. The “greenhouse effect” caused dramatically high average temperature levels in the biosphere until photosynthesis was stimulated to the point where carbon dioxide was almost completely removed; the average temperature then dropped until freezing reduced plant activity enough to raise carbon dioxide levels to a more moderate level.
Temperature swings from “snowball Earth” to “dinosaur Earth” eventually established the delicate balance with which the world was entirely comfortable… until the appearance of coal-burning humans caused unprecedented rises in carbon dioxide and rapidly increasing temperatures. Thus, humankind has disturbed the balance that was established over eons of evolution and geological time.
“There have been people who have been making threats, privately and publicly, against me for quite some time,” he [Rosenstein] said at an event in Washington. “And I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.” (from a NYT article By Eileen Sullivan and Nicholas Fandos on Trump’s threats against DOJ)
The Republican members of the House “Freedom Caucus” have been interfering in the DOJ’s investigation of Donald J. Trump by demanding enormous quantities of documents, many of which concern ongoing investigations. Many of the documents have not traditionally been shared with House overseers of the DOJ, and demanding that they be produced goes against all norms of the Department’s policies. The threats that Rosenstein has faced include “articles of impeachment” that “are being drawn up” to punish him for not toeing the line and not stopping the investigation that looks like it is going to expose a thoroughly corrupt president and equally corrupt Republicans who, we dare to hope, will be voted out of the House this November.
These traitors are aware of the nearness of the elections and their tenuous hold on power, and surely intend to bring matters to a head before they can be thrown out by the voters. Look for some exciting and terrifying legal and political maneuvers this summer and fall, in an attempt to protect their favorite destroyer of American government.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and geralt)
An investigator at the Department of Health and Human Services, Michael Cohen, told me [Evan Hughes] the federal government faces an overwhelming amount of health care fraud: “We call it a tsunami.” (from a NYT magazine article by Evan Hughes)
The article is about transdermal immediate-release fentanyl prescribing and reveals Insys, in particular, is paying kickbacks to high-prescribing doctors disguised as “speaker fees.” The article details the abuses and names names, but this issue is bigger even than opioids and goes directly to the failure of medicine in the United States to serve the patient as a result of its fee-for-service and entrepreneur/capitalist basis.
The practice of paying “speaker fees” is a long-standing and poorly disguised form of kickbacks given mostly to specialists who are paid to give speeches to groups of doctors extolling the use of certain drugs, which happen to be sold by the companies that pay the “speaker fees.” Insys has weaponized the “speaker fee” by simply paying doctors who are high prescribers (based on databases of doctors and which drugs they prescribe) and having them give dinners for staff and friends at expensive restaurants… sometimes with a few licensed physicians in attendance, sometimes not.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and RonnyK)
Vice President Mike Pence called former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of federal contempt of court last year, a “champion of … the rule of law” and said he was honored that Arpaio attended an event with him on Tuesday in Tempe, Ariz. (from the LA Times written by John Wagner)
We assume that Moral Mike feels free to lie, thinking that no one is going to complain because his boss pardoned the bum… well, I for one object to this absurd fantasy of a falsehood about a man who was twice forced from his job as a judge because of convictions for contempt of court… seriously, how could someone who was literally convicted TWICE of contempt of court and then, because of those convictions, twice FORCED out of his job as a JUDGE be called “a champion of the rule of law”?? Don’t real words have any real meaning any more? Verily, we live in a post-truth world.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and DomnoDominik)
Comment of the Day: Trump can’t think out of the box because the box is smarter than he is
In his meeting with a deified North Korean monster who’s apt to kill a relative or two before breakfast, we’ll see if the president can hold his own. The mind boggles at what he might be holding, but that’s a story for another day.
If Mousse-olini manages to get anything positive out of this deal, it can probably be explained by the old truism: even a blind squirrel gathers the occasional nut. To bob and weave with Kim Jong-un requires being able to think outside the box. But thinking outside the box is not the president’s strong point, since the box is way smarter than he is.
To attribute positive results from such a negative man is to think like a gambler, whose rare win justifies the endless ruinous losses that get overlooked in the glare of the moment.
His handling of natural disasters, the embarrassment of his pulling out of the climate accord, the bogus tax plan that ultimately gives away the store to billionaires, the praising of neo-Nazis, the bizarre cabinet appointments, the midnight tweets that would embarrass a slow schoolchild…none of this will be undone if he stumbles into a success.
Mr. Obama got the Nobel Peace prize because the world felt so relieved when W. left. If our incompetent, stupid and mean president gets the prize, it will cheapen all those that have been handed out in the past century.
What he needs to be handed is his walking papers.
“We’re dealing with a person who’s psychologically and categorically different from any previous president,” says the Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio. “He may be the most successful con man in history atop the most powerful nation in history. He has prevailed in a way no other spinner of tales has prevailed.
“He’s shaping the behavior of much of the world, getting inside people’s heads. He’s like Cambridge Analytica. He knows how to determine what people are interested in and like and dislike and respond to. Then he acts in a way that changes the course of things.
“And expecting him to be different or less crazy only makes us the crazy ones. His behavior gets more outrageous, out of control and florid as the pressure on him persists. And it’s only going to get worse.”
“The guy who said he could be as presidential as any president except for Abraham Lincoln is instead about as presidential as Yosemite Sam,” says his biographer Tim O’Brien.
This quote comes from a NYT column by Maureen Dowd, who is lambasting the Democratic Party for not putting forward some really exciting new presidential prospects. She starts her column by floating the possibility that Donald J. Trump could be eligible for the Nobel Prize for achieving Kim Jong-un’s denuclearization of Korea. Then she compares him to Yosemite Sam. She then claims that Democratic over-reaction to Trump’s rule could give him a chance at a second term as president. These wild shifts of reaction to “the most successful con man in history” are characteristic of the feelings of those who have been insulted and bullied by the most powerful man on the planet who is also the most successful con man in history.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
“Giving out Ambien or Provigil sleep aids ‘like candy’ as alleged is still dangerous and irresponsible because these drugs have notorious side effects,” said Art Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at the New York University School of Medicine. “You really don’t want to be cavalier about it. These drugs are prescription for a reason — not the same as an over-the-counter drug.”
quoted from a Microsoft news feed and CNN about the bungled nomination of Dr. Ronny Jackson, the president’s personal physician and head of the White House medical unit; extremely loose prescribing practices with, in particular, Ambien (a hypnotic or sleeping pill) and Provigil (a stimulant with effects somewhat similar to amphetamine and Ritalin); also, the dispensing of so-called “Z packs” of an antibiotic (azithromycin) for upper respiratory infections (a popular placebo for cold and sore throat) on request without an examination, much less a physician’s signature. Worst of all were allegations that pills were missing and pill counts were impossible due to poor documentation– a sure sign of drug pilfering and possibly, someone on the staff having a problem with addiction.
It is clear that Ronny (!) is out of his league when it comes to administering a clinic full of entitled, ambitious politicians, much less the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and RonnyK)
“[the ]uplifting words of Winston Churchill to the British nation in June 1940, under the shadow of the Nazi conquest of France: ‘In casting up this dread balance sheet and contemplating our dangers with a disillusioned eye,’ Churchill declared, ‘I see great reason for intense vigilance and exertion, but none whatever for panic or despair.’ ”
thanks to this article in the New York Times.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
Donald J. Trump may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which — according to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice — makes it a crime for a United States company to act with willful blindness toward the corrupt activities of a foreign business partner. His many development projects, most of which failed, in which he partnered with known criminals and sold apartments to organized crime figures, many of them Russian, make him vulnerable to charges that he wilfully ignored open money laundering by his associates.
(thanks to a New York Times article discussing this very subject.)
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
Conrad Theodore Seitz 