A Few Thoughts

I was going to add the following few thoughts to the beginning of my post on Elaine Pagels, but decided to let them stand alone. 

First, for those of you who have not heard, and I imagine it is an overwhelming majority, the EPA is poised to reverse its decision that the release and continued accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is dangerous, and needs to be addressed. 

This endangerment finding which occurred early in Obama's first term, was the result of a challenge to various EPA regulations that particularly targeted the transportation industry, such as tail pipe emissions and minimum gas mileage standards (CAFE). But also help limit the toxins that are emitted by power plants, especially coal burning ones. Those challenges eventually reached the Supreme Court which ruled that the EPA, in accordance with the Clean Air Act, could create those rules as long as there were scientific studies which proved the logic behind the standards. 

Now, however, the Trump Administration is using non-peer reviewed "studies" that emphasize the cost of these regulations without considering the savings, in lives and dollars, that those regulations have provided. 

What is spectacularly stupid about such a rollback, is the obvious facts on the ground; more billion dollar environmental events, more extreme weather, more push back from Mother Nature against our arrogance.

For some more info, here is a link to an article about this travesty. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epa-revoke-endangerment-finding-regulating-greenhouse-gases/  

Also, a link to a post I wrote in 2014 when I naively thought that, at the time, science was being attacked. I say naively now, because compared to items like the above, the events which triggered that post ten years ago are very small in comparison. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2014/03/science-fiction-and-fact.html 

Suffice it to say that actions like the rescinding of the endangerment finding is not only backward science, even if we assume that those advocating for it are only the stooges of the fossil fuel industry, but anti-science when it becomes clear that the "costs" that might be saved when this ruling is repealed (savings for business) will be outweighed by twice even thrice in costs that will be realized by the public in terms of increased medical ailments (and bills to pay for care), not to mention the additional damage and deaths that climate change, now exacerbated rather than addressed, will create.

I would call it immensely short sighted, if I didn't think it actually reflected rich interests stealing even more money from the rest of us, while causing illness and death, all supported by Trump and his fellow billionaires, and the spineless public servants who roam the halls of Congress pretending to care about their constituents.

Second, I just want to send a personal message to Ghislaine Maxwell. Ghislaine, I know you would prefer not to spend the next 20 years in prison, but be careful with whom you make a deal to get out, or to earn a pardon. Certainly, you have a treasure trove of information concerning who spent time on the Island, who ran in Jeffrey's circle most frequently, who had the weirdest sexual peccadilloes, and that such information will never be worth more or provide as much leverage as now.

In fact, you don't even have to be all that honest, just reveal what you are asked to reveal. After all, morals have never been a problem for you. 

But remember, once you make a deal with the devil, in this case the Trump Administration, they will own you, and while you may be pardoned or released early or just sent to a prison with more freedoms, you will forever have to remain on guard to not say the wrong thing (like the actual truth) to the wrong person at the wrong time.

Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, as long as you possess knowledge regarding Trump's relationship with Epstein, you are at risk for a similar ending that befell your ex-boss. I just hope you have some insurance squirreled away in an off-shore account that can't be easily traced to you, because any leverage you think you hold in your memories, won't be worth a penny if you can't expose the truth, dead or alive. 

Be careful, not because I don't think you are scum for all the pain you helped inflict on all the young women who you trafficked for the rich and slimy, but because I would like to think that karma is real, and that the men behind the horrors might someday be held accountable. 

Lastly, I read an interesting article this morning somewhat related to my initial topic, the decline/attacks against science, but from the perspective that this administration's multi-pronged attack on the institutions that represent knowledge and technological progress may result in America no longer being the country where scientists flock for advanced training and opportunities for cutting edge research in those areas that will drive the future of our planet.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/07/science-empire-america-decline/683711/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20250731&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily 

In a nutshell, the article recounts the decline, throughout history of some of the most advanced nations, scientifically speaking, and how those countries lost their superiority. 

And how, right now, to satisfy his warped opinion of how we should think, and who should be allowed to come to America to study, learn, and share their knowledge, Trump is causing the most intelligent and forward thinking people in the world to rethink their desire to come here while emboldening other countries, European as well as Canada and China, to welcome those same scientists with open arms, and research dollars.

Additionally, by ranting against the higher education institutions like Harvard and Columbia who seek the most brilliant minds in the world, regardless of country of origin or political opinions, he closes the door on those immigrants. Remember, if not for the prejudiced attacks, and outright violence, against the Jews by the Third Reich, the development of our space program, not to mention the creation of the atomic bomb, might not have happened had Hitler and his Aryan acolytes not chased the smartest people out of Germany.

Finally, by slashing the budgets for the NSA, NIH, and other such organizations that fund medical research, Trump is delaying, even cancelling the work of people who one day may have found cures for Alzheimers, Parkinson's cancer, etc, all in the name of some idiotic obsession with rooting out woke doctrine.

And so the decline continues.