Wisdom from the Founding Fathers on "Gangrene"

 

Ben Franklin:

 

“There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men.  These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money.”

 

Alexander Hamilton:

 

“When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall. How shocking is it to discover among ourselves, even at this early period, the strongest symptoms of this fatal disease.”  

 

John Adams warned of the

 

“Gangrene of avarice.”

Avarice: It's who Trump is.

Gaga for Gaza: Picking a 51st State

NEWS COMES FAST AND FURIOUS since Donald Dumpling has returned to the White House (or to Mar-a-Lago, depending on his mood). But baby, he’s back. He’s bad. And he has a bold, beautiful, brazen plan for adding a 51st state! 

The only problem? 

The poor sap can’t focus long enough to settle on any one piece of real estate over all the others. First it was Canada that danced seductively before his eyes, like a Miss Universe contestant he wanted to grab by the pussy. 

Then he fell hard for Greenland, like when he forgot he was married to Melania and had sex with Stormy Daniels. 

Lately, he has goo-goo eyes for a new dream girl, the Gaza Strip.

 

* 

So let me jump ahead of Republicans in Congress, who have turned fawning over The Dumpling into a pathetic new art. If Mr. Trump decides to send U.S. troops to Gaza – which he said he would, “if necessary,” we should name the new state “Donaldlandia” and its capital “Donald City.” And the new state shall be provided a fitting motto: “Where Did All the Palestinians Go?” 

(Or, in Latin: “Heus, Ubi omnes Palaestinae abierunt?”) 

 

As with The Dumpling’s half-baked plans for making Canada the 51st state, or Greenland, or now Gaza, there are glaring problems in any of these paths. Trump is too obtuse to notice. So, we will have to help. 

1. To make Gaza a state, we must first dispossess 2.2 million Palestinians already resident there. Trump first insisted that Gazans would have to “learn from history,” and if his initial plan were to be carried forward, he would be right. He suggested they all leave and never come back. 

(Call it “The Trail of Tears,” only this time not for the Cherokees.)

 

Kicking the Native-Americans off their land worked "great."

 

2. “Everybody I have spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs,” Donald told reporters. Of course, that wasn’t true. The Saudis decided the idea was so ridiculous that they filed a response condemning the “plan” at 4 a.m. the next morning. 

3. The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Egypt also blasted the half-baked proposal. 

4. Germany warned that Trump’s plan would foster “new suffering and new hate.” British, French and Spanish diplomats called the scheme unworkable. If they weren’t diplomats, they would have said, “Trump is an imbecile.” That would be “imbécil” in Spanish, “imbécile” in French, “schwachsinnig” in German. 

5. One Jordanian lawmaker suggested that Mr. Trump must have camel poop for brains. 

(Okay, that’s a joke. But it fits.)

6. The road to statehood for Gaza would be bumpy, with daunting housekeeping matters to address. The Dumpling said the U.S. would “take responsibility” for disposal of fifty million tonnes of ruble produced by sixteen months of bombing. A tonne is equal to 2204.6 pounds – so more like 60 million tons in our system.

7. Trump said we would “level it out,” and turn the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” 

8. I think we can all agree that nothing conjures up an image of helping people displaced by brutal warfare, quite like creating a new playground for the world’s superrich, jet-setting folks. 

Like Mar-a-Lago only bigger! 

(Only ladies with big Botox lips and giant boobs would be allowed to visit.)

Known as "Mar-a-Lago" face: Botox lips and filler.
Kimberly Guilfoyle (now banished), left, Laura Loomer, right.

 

9. Gaza would be a tiny state –139 square miles – but big enough for at least one Trump hotel! Maybe two! 

Jared Kushner has already said that Gaza’s “waterfront property could be very valuable,” which the Palestinians would love – save for the fact that Trump is telling them they should leave and not let the revolving hotel door hit them in the ass on the way out. 

10. Trump did admit that we would have to dig up a lot of unexploded ordinance. But he said he would be happy to do it. 

11. He failed to mention the thousands of bodies buried under all that wreckage and didn’t offer any thoughts on proper burials. 

12. Donald is no fan of laws protecting the environment, but you can’t just dump all that crushed building material and those mashed bodies in the Mediterranean. The current estimated cost of ruble removal is $1.2 billion. Re-building is expected to take twenty-one years. 

(Apparently, Donald hopes to still be president at that time.) 

"To infinity, and beyond!"

 

13. Once Donaldlandia becomes a state, we will need a giant border wall to keep illegal immigrants out. Such as Palestinians who might wish to return. 

14. Expect Trump to claim that Egypt will pay for the wall. 

15. Donald has also suggested that we can find four or five pieces of land somewhere for the displaced Palestinians to live. 

16. Learning from history, as he said we must, we could call those places “reservations,” and have Native Americans explain how well that worked before. 

17. What if Gaza were out? That would make Greenland the top candidate for our newest state. During his first term, Donald asked aides what they thought about trading Puerto Rico straight up for Greenland. In fact, more than once he forgot that Puerto Ricans were already U.S. citizens. 

(Admit it. So did you.)

 

18. In terms of why Denmark claims Greenland in the first place, The Dumpling is stumped. Let’s explain slowly, in hopes of reaching the dimwitted. Once upon a time there were Vikings, who did not wear helmets with horns, even though old movies consistently depict them styling the horns. 

 

19. The Vikings were sometimes called “Danes.” Today, the people of Denmark are called the “Danish people.” 

20. The “Danish people” do not love pastries any more than most Americans, who do love donuts. 

A lot. 

21. Let’s be frank. All the donut-eating is showing. In 2002, the average adult male in this country was 25 pounds heavier, compared to 1960 (191 pounds vs. 166). 

22. We haven’t exactly slowed down with pastries since. As of 2024, 39% of American men were obese. 

23. The ladies aren’t doing much better. 

24. I had four donuts this morning, while typing this list. I believe I showed admirable restraint, because there were three remaining in the box. 

 

25. I think we can all agree, that in a contest with real Vikings, wielding battle axes, a modern American would get his or her skull split like a gourd, except that we do have a lot of AR-15s. 

26. Unfortunately, we use our AR-15s mostly for shooting up schools. 

27. The only way Donald himself could ever hope to get into combat with Vikings would be if he drove a golf cart, equipped with a cannon.

Trump: In reality.

Trump: As his fans imagine him.

 

28. Sorry. We were talking about Greenland and got distracted! How did the Danes first put in a claim on this icy chunk of real estate? The first Vikings landed in Iceland, c. 875 A.D. In 985, Eric the Red sailed west from there and discovered Greenland. We also know the Vikings were into “fake news.” They named the barren land, “Greenland,” hoping to attract more settlers. 

And the nicer land they called “Iceland,” to keep all the illegal immigrants from wanting to come. 

29. This fakery would be akin to Trump selling fugly gold sneakers, the difference being, he found plenty of suckers. 

30. Not many Vikings were fooled, even in an era when there was still no Siri to ask for answers. In fact, disgruntled settlers in Greenland were the first to come up with the phrase, “It’s colder than a witch’s tit.” 

31. Or as Danes would put it: “Det er koldere end en heksemejse.” 

32. Did you know that Greenland is squashed down under ice that averages 1.4 miles thick? Well, it is. 

33. The first Danish king to convert to Christianity was Harold Bluetooth in 985 A.D. Once he and his people adopted Christianity, they picked up the fad of witch-burning, which was surprisingly popular. 

34. We should probably remind everyone that the first English settlers to come to America also took the biblical admonition, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” seriously. This is additional proof that we should erase all walls separating church and state and admit we would be better off if Christian Nationalism triumphs, and we can have fifty-one different state governments led by church leaders and require taxpayers to hand over cash to support private religious schools. 

35. The blogger is pretty sure Chirstian Nationalists don’t advocate handing taxpayer money to schools run by Mormons or Muslims. Or schools related to Druidism. Or Hindu schools, now that you mention it. Christian Nationalists are picky about whose religious ideas should prevail. 

36. Theirs. 

37. We should also point out that “Eric the Red” was not a communist, despite that “red” business – mainly because Karl Marx hadn’t been born yet.   

38. If you’ve never noticed, the MAGA faithful are quick to shout at anyone they don’t like, such as the 81 million people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 (which is 7 million more than voted for Donald) and call them “Marxists” or “commies.” 

39. If a fellow American displeases the MAGA faithful by pointing out that Biden did win in 2020, or that Puerto Ricans are indeed U.S. citizens, and that The Dumpling is too dense to notice, the MAGA folks are quick to howl, “You dirty commie. Go back to the country you came from.” 

(This blogger was proudly born in Akron, Ohio.)

 

40 During his first crack at leading the nation, Donald told a quartet of U.S. congresswomen to go back to the countries from whence they had come, after they suggested that he was a nitwit. 

41. One of those congresswomen was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, born in Puerto Rico, which is definitely part of this country. 

(We mentioned that above.)

 

42. Donald missed again with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was born in Michigan. 

43. He whiffed a third time, adding credence to the “nitwit theory,” getting Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley wrong. She was born in Cincinnati, which, when I looked out my window here in southern Ohio, was in fact part of the United States. 

44. Pressley’s ancestors came to America on a slave ship. Now that Trump has signed an executive order, making it a crime to say anything negative about our nation’s past, we will have to refer to slave ships as “cruise ships with surprising affordable passenger accommodations.” 

 

45. In any case, sometime around 1000 A.D. Leif Ericson sailed from Iceland to Norway, to visit the family. On his way home, he overshot the mark and ran into Newfoundland – which is today part of Canada. The Vikings didn’t stick around because the “Skraelings,” or “Screaming People,” showered them with flint-tipped arrows. These indigenous peoples would later be re-labeled as “Indians,” including varieties such as, “Iroquois,” “Algonquin,” and “Cleveland.” 

46. The years passed and still the Detroit Lions did not make the Super Bowl. Finally, in 1721, the king of Denmark decided to check up on the settlers in Greenland, after no one had heard from them for three hundred years. He sent an expedition to the island to see how the settlers were doing – which was terrible. Only the Inuit remained. Not to be denied, the king put in a fresh claim. 

47. Let’s be blunt. Mr. Trump has no more grasp on U.S. history than a panda. But even he probably knows that “1721” is before the United States was born. That means the Danish claim to Greenland is solid. 

48. During one of his great speeches, Donald piled up praise for General George Washington and the Continental Army. He commended George and the boys for capturing the airports at Yorktown in 1781. 

(And I’m not joking!) 

 

49. That would have been long before Orville and Wilbur, two proud Ohio boys, invented flying. We can report with confidence that no one in the Continental Army ever had to worry about carry-on luggage.

50. This past January, Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Greenland. He didn’t stay long, but when he came home, he assured reporters that Greenlanders loved him, and loved his Dumpling Dad even more, and could hardly wait to slap MAGA caps on their heads, and maybe on polar bears too. 

51. “F**k the polar bears,” Trump fans will shout. They know the president would never lie, and he has told them that climate change is “a hoax,” and if you believe it is real (such as scientists at NASA) you are a “commie” and a “pedophile.” 

52. Better check that NASA link quickly. Now it includes a disclaimer that the science will soon be moving to a new home. 

53. Likely, a dumpster. 

54. For now, NASA scientists are free to report that in recent years the Greenland ice sheet has lost 5,390 billion tons of ice. 

That is a very bad sign, climate-wise. 

55. President Trump likes to tell his followers not to worry – that the oceans are rising at a rate of one teaspoon per million years. (I’m joking. What he really said during his recent campaign for a second term was that the waters would rise only “one-eighth of an inch in the next 400 years.”) 

56. NASA scientists have actually warned that oceans are rising 0.13 inches per year, or 1.3 inches per decade, or 13 inches per century. In 400 years, the oceans would have risen 52 inches. 

57. That’s more than four feet, if you live near a beach. 

Greenland melting.

 

 58. Meanwhile, if you watched the Inauguration, you know that the lovely First Lady will be doing her best for the next four hundred years to avoid kissing her philandering husband or sleeping with him. 

She will continue to wear large defensive hats. 

Keeping those lips at a safe distance.

59. Despite what Don Jr. said, the leaders of all five political parties in Greenland put a damper on his dream, and Don Sr.’s dream, and announced that they had no desire to be part of the United States. 

60. Wait. Are you saying that Greenland has five political parties??? 

61. Yes. This is an educational post. 

62. To gin up support for his planned land grab, President Trump has been telling everyone that the United States must have Greenland for national security purposes, apparently forgetting that Denmark is a NATO ally. So are Canada, Norway, and Finland, all closer to Greenland than the USA. 

63. If Russia or Vikings tried to attack Greenland, NATO rules would apply. All members would be expected to pitch in and fight. 

64. No Trumps would fight. No Trump has ever fought for this country. Like: Zero. 

65. Well, maybe Barron? 

66. President Trump hates NATO and often talks shit about pulling out. Vladimir Putin also hates NATO, which should tell you something. 

67. Since our main topic is “new states,” although the blogger seems to forget, how about Puerto Rico as a dark horse candidate to be #51? The Puerto Ricans are already U.S. citizens, and they have an actual interest in statehood; but Donald Sr. doesn’t want a state chock full of dark-skinned, potential voters. 

68. The president has already said that if we need more immigrants, he would like to see more Norwegians; and you can guess why. No one (so far) has ever suggested making Norway the 51st state. 

(Fun fact: The Norwegians also have Viking ancestors.)

69. Puerto Rico has 3,800,000 inhabitants – more than enough to become a state, with two U.S. senators, and maybe an NFL expansion team. 

70. That would be more people than Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota combined. 

71. An estimated 48,000 Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, when Donald avoided serving because his feet hurt. So, their patriotism is real and does not end with the tongue. 

72. Speaking of potential 51st or even 52nd states, according to Republicans, Washington D.C., with 690,000 people, is also out. Again: Too many dark-skinned people, who would vote Democratic. 

73. Wyoming – with 600,000 people – that’s a real state! Just ask Sen. John Barrasso – which, if you were inebriated and tried to pronounce his name would sound surprising like you were saying, “Senator Bare Asshole.” 

(The blogger has bicycled across Wyoming. He does love that state.) 

Wyoming scene: Near Jeffrey City.

74. Sadly, if you know your history – and the president doesn’t – Greenland doesn’t have enough people to qualify for statehood, partly because polar bears get hungry. The old rule: First, a chunk of real estate under U.S. control must audition by becoming a “territory.” Then you need a minimum of 60,000 people to become a state. 

Greenland is 3,301 people short. 

75. Also, you need to have a state tree, a state flower, a state insect (optional) and a state motto. 

76. Indiana’s state insect is the firefly, which I  felt I should mention. 

77. No state has yet made the vulture the state bird, which shows a clear lack of creativity and imagination. 

78. If Greenland wins the contest to be our next state, I think the state motto should be, “Colder than a witch’s tit.” 

(Just saying.)

 

79. We were discussing Newfoundland earlier, which is part of Canada, and which is where the Vikings first landed in America. Personally, President Trump favors Canada as the 51st state. 

80. The MAGA faithful love his out-of-the-box ideas (also known as “hogwash,” “claptrap” and “moonshine”) – even though no one who likes Donald understands the rules of hockey, Canadians’ favorite game. 

81. Rules such as “icing the puck.” 

82. Clearly, the MAGA faithful fail to understand that if Canada were to become one state, it would be fourteen times the size of Texas. This would be hard for Texans to accept, like being from Rhode Island. 

83. The very idea that our neighbors to the north would go for a plan to become one state and enjoy two measly senators – like North Dakota – when there are 41 million Canadians – is the essence of nonsense, and only a moron would suggest it. 

84. Like this guy. 

 

85. In fact, our northern neighbor is divided into thirteen provinces and territories. At least eight should, if we are using the U.S. model, become states. Ontario would be fifth in population, if made a state, beating out Pennsylvania. Quebec would match Virginia, and British Columbia would equal Alabama. 

86. Saskatchewan would have to change its name to “Even Farther North Dakota,” and would also demand two senators. 

87. Canada has universal healthcare. Canadians will not want to wait around to sign up for Trumpcare – which does not exist. 

88.  An overwhelming majority of Canadians (81%) believe climate change is real, and think Donald Dumpling is a nincompoop because he can’t tell the difference between climate and weather.  

89. Only 21% of Canadians would have picked The Dumpling over Kamala Harris, vs. 60% for the Democrat. If Canadians had been able to vote, Trump would have lost in 2024, again. 

90. Canadians believe in gun control. As recently as 2021, the U.S. had a murder rate three times higher. 

91. They should probably seal their border against us, not ask to become a state. 

92. If you point out to Trump fans that Americans have more guns (an estimated 378 million) than there are actual Americans (336 million), you will be accused of wanting to take all the guns away and make real men wear pantyhose. 

93. President Trump has made it Priority #1, to protect us all from “pronouns,” such as an unarmed transgender kid threatening the English language by asking to be referred to as “they.” 

94. What about an armed individual shooting up another school? Isn’t that a more serious problem? 

95. Not according to lawmakers like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). He believes every family should have at least one gun per child. 

96. If a child is ambidextrous, then two. 

Merry Christmas from the Massie family.

 

97. Since our main topic is still potential new states, we should point out that a forward thinking American has copyrighted the best designs for flags with 51 stars. So that’s another vexing problem. 

98. There might be a way to squeeze 51 stars onto this flag, if we were creative. Sadly, more than a few Trump fans would be onboard with that idea. 

 

99. It’s going to be a long four years with the Dumpling back in charge, and I think I’ll go eat those three leftover donuts. 

100. Finally, I believe we can predict that Melania is going to need a lot of big defensive hats during her husband’s second term in office. 

A Mountie hat would look especially stylish and seem fitting, assuming Canada wins the prize to become our next great state. 

(The vulture could be their state bird!)

Climate Change - January 2025

Climate change: Donald in charge. We’re all screwed.

January 20, 2025. Map explained below.

HAPPY NEW YEAR – 2025: With only 19 days until Donald Trump is inaugurated, let’s get this New Year jumping. 

If you believe in the threat posed by climate change – because you are not an ill-informed dolt, consider Team Trump 2.0’s choices to address the issue in the next four years. 

Most members of this sorry crew deny climate change is happening or insist it’s going to be great for people who want to live closer to beaches, if it is. On a scale of 1-10, with “10” being best for real action on this issue, we rate Donald’s choices, and Donald, himself.

 

Elon Musk (5): “We shouldn’t be complacent about changing the chemical constituency of our atmosphere & oceans, but climate change definitely will not end the world as we know it! If people keep pushing hard, humanity will solve the sustainable energy problem in time.” — Sept. 10, 2023, post on X

* 

Vivek Ramaswamy (1) was asked about the problem during his longshot campaign for president: 

ABC News: “Do you believe in climate change?”

 

Mr. Ramaswamy: “Well, I think that with due respect, I’ve talked about this in other forums, ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ is not really a meaningful question, because climate change has existed as long as the Earth has existed. Do I believe it is a fact that global surface temperatures are rising over the course of the last century and the last half century? Yes, I think that that is an established trend.”

 

ABC News: “As president, would you do anything to try to buck that trend?”

 

Mr. Ramaswamy: “No is the answer.” — ABC News interview, September 2023

 

UPDATE (January 20, 2025): Vivek didn’t even make it to Inauguration Day. He got the boot, mostly for being an asshole, whom other assholes, like Elon and Steve “I Got a Pardon, You Didn’t” Bannon, couldn’t stomach.  

Bannon also hates Elon, and recently called him an “evil guy.” So, we’ll have to see which asshole wears out his welcome first, at Mar-a-Lago. 

UPDATE (June 6, 2025): Okay, it was Elon. In fact, Bannon has started calling for Mr. Musk to be deported.

* 

Sen. Marco Rubio (2): In 2010, Rubio denied that climate change was real. In 2018, while running for reelection, he admitted it was real, then studiously avoided mentioning a cause. 

Too many people leaving their oven doors open? 

More recently, he told The New York Times, “The climate has always been changing, and no matter what, we have to mitigate against it. No matter how well you think you know the causation.”

* 

Pete Hegseth (1): “Whether it’s hot or cold, the enemy is here, as far as liberals are concerned. And it’s all about control for them. That’s why climate change is the perfect enemy. They get to control your life to deal with it, no matter what’s happening.” — “Fox & Friends” 2019 

With that, Pete went back to his favorite pastimes – cheating on his wives (in sequence) and sexually harassing women.

* 

Elise Stefanik (6), before she became MAGA. Now (1). 

Before: 

“Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is misguided, and harms the ongoing effort to fight climate change while also isolating us from our allies.” — 2017 statement 

Now: 

“Americans have had enough of Joe Biden and far-left Democrats’ anti-American energy policies.” — March 20, 2024, statement

* 

Lee Zeldin, who will head up the Environmental Protection Agency, pre-MAGA (7), currently (2). 

Pre-MAGA: 

“I think that there is more of an awareness and a willingness to recognize that climate change is real, and Congress is more and more open-minded toward identifying those solutions.” — 2016 interview in Years of Living Dangerously, a documentary television series

Currently: 

“There are regulations that the left wing of this country have been advocating through regulatory power that ends up causing businesses to go in the wrong direction.” — Nov. 11, 2024, Fox News interview 

Now, as head of EPA, which is about protecting the environment, he says he’s going to push for “energy dominance.”

* 

Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice for Secretary of the Interior (5): When asked by CNN what he thought about human-caused climate change, he responded: 

Burgum: “Well, I know the climate is changing, we know that. And I’ll tell you in North Dakota, we’re the only state that set a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. But we’re not doing it with a bunch of regulations. We said we can get there through no new mandates, no new regulations, all through innovation. And that’s happening in North Dakota right now. And again, I think if people want to have a discussion, if they think CO2’s the cause, then let’s get serious about what we can to reduce that. Again, there’s all kinds of things we can do that are more effective than the crazy plans that are in place now.” — CNN interview, July 2023

* 

Chris Wright, head the Energy Department: He’s the chief executive of a fracking company, and his nomination is supported by the oil tycoon, billionaire Harold G. Hamm. That may be good for the development of energy. On climate change, however, he’s a (1), only because we can’t go lower. “We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fear-mongering of the media, politicians and activists,” he insisted in a LinkedIn video in 2023.

* 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (3) warned as recently as last April, “I believe that climate change is existential.” Now he insists “this crisis is being used as a pretext for clamping down totalitarian controls.” 

* 

Sean Duffy, most recently a Fox Business co-host, will head the Transportation Department (1).). 

“If you say the climate’s changing, is it coming from CO2 or is it coming from the sun? Where is — why is the climate changing? And then you would say, let’s have a rigorous debate about what is causing it, or what are all the factors that bring us to climate change? And when you have the left that says ‘we’re gonna shut down alternative science or science that challenges our narrative,’ I think it makes people go ‘maybe there is a different set of priorities here as opposed to climate change, maybe it actually is an agenda of control.’” — Nov. 11, 2024, Fox Business Live

 

In other words, Duffy will spend the next four years tap dancing around the issue, unless we get lucky and a super-charged hurricane carries him away, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

* 

Okay, we’re running out of Trump choices we can hope will address this overarching issue. 

We have left: 

Scott Bessent, who will head Treasury (1): His focus will be on boosting fossil fuel production. As he told Fox Business: “We’re also going to have a massive deregulatory program, and we’re going to have energy dominance, so cheap energy, deregulation and a low tax rate – what’s better than that?”

(Not broiling the brains of future generations, maybe?)

* 

Brooke Rollins will head up the Agriculture Department … and … ah, hell (1): This goes back a way, but in 2014, she was still claiming, “There’s been no warming in over 17 years. So all of this discussion about shutting down certain parts of our energy industry is nothing short of a disaster for the economy.” – 2014 Texas Public Policy Foundation event. 

* 

And we can’t ignore The Big Dumpling, himself, Donald J. Trump. This brain-dead fool gets a (1), on the strength of such statements as, “Climate change is a hoax,” and “Climate change will create more oceanfront properties,” and “Windmills are terrible because they cause cancer.” 

Donald has had eight years in office, or running for office, and still doesn’t know the difference between climate and weather.

In fact, he’s gotten dumber.

UPDATE (January 20, 2025): You can argue all kinds of ways about what must be done to deal with the climate threat. If you think Trump and this sorry crew are right, however, you must ask yourself: What do the rest of the nations of the world know that they don’t? At last count, 194 countries, and the European Union, have signed on to the effort to limit the damage done by climate change. 

A full list of nations that have not: 

Iran

Libya

Yemen 

– and now –   

The United States. 

Trump took us out of the deal during his first term and Biden took us back in, and on January 20, 2025, Donald took us out again.

 

FUN FACT: Solar energy had a banner year in 2024, adding 50 gigawatts of power to the U.S. power grid. 

That was more added by one source of energy than by any source, in any year, in at least two decades. 

 

FUN FACT #2: While you were making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and cut down on time spent watching cat videos on the internet, scientists reported that the hottest year ever was just recorded. 

Yes, for MAGA fans, we can say 2024 was “Melania Hot,” for purposes of comparison.

 

Top Ten Hottest Years 

1.   2024 (with a global surface temperature 2.79°F above average).

2.   2023 (with a global surface temperature 2.52°F above average).

3.   2016

4.   2020

5.   2019

6.   2015

7.   2017

8.   2022

9.   2018

10. 2021 

The year 2014 is now knocked out of the top ten. 

If you believe in science, you should be worried for your children, and especially your grandchildren. My oldest grandchild will be twelve in September 2025, meaning she will have lived through the hottest eleven years on record. It’s only going to get worse for young people around the globe.

 

FUN FACT: Fun, unless you understand basic science. The body of a baby mastodon, well preserved, was recently recovered from thawing ice in Siberia. How long had that baby been on ice? 

Fifty thousand years. 

This baby is not to be confused with the remains of another wooly mammoth found in thawing ice in the Yukon in 2022. 

That ice: 30,000 years old. 

And, of course, the remains of a saber-tooth tiger kitten, found in thawing ice in Siberia, would be entirely different. 

But the problem would be the same. That kitten was in ice that was 35,000 years old. And with climate change, we are either going to get a grip, or we and our descendants are royally screwed.