Elections

I have been a political independent all my life.  I don’t believe that the party agendas of either the Democrats or the Republicans are correct prescriptions for anything!  I have been particularly disenchanted in recent years with the GOP,  since it morphed into a “fearless-leader-who-can-do-no-wrong” cult around Donald Trump.  Much of what they claim is debunked Qanon conspiracy theories.  The rest is Trump making egregiously false claims about those who oppose him.

That resembles nothing so much as how the Nazis morphed into a “fearless-leader-who-can-do-no-wrong” cult around Adolf Hitler somewhere about 1922 or 1923,  and we all know where that led!   Even the egregious lying about almost everything is quite similar.  Trump is his own Dr. Goebbels!  Plus,  there are several younger “Trump-wannabees” waiting in the wings,  boding ill for some time to come.  The threat continues after Trump is gone!

Both party agendas for economic policy are wrong,  precisely because they are fixed prescriptions,  when the requirements and circumstances vary wildly with time!  That variation is sort-of erratically periodical.  We call it the “business cycle”.  

But for whatever reasons,  there are “good times” and there are “bad times”.  What history teaches is that you run balanced budgets during the “good times” and bank the surpluses.  Why?  Government must spend well beyond its means during the “bad times”,  because no one else will!  And you rack up less debt to pay off,  if you have some savings to spend first!   How simple is that? 

The fatal problem:  if government does not hugely spend in “bad times”,  the economy grinds to a complete halt,  requiring a decade or more to recover!  Such was the Great Depression.  And,  it recurred in 1937,  with a politics-driven premature cut in spending!  It took the massive spending run-up to World War 2,  to finally end that depression!  We indeed paid most of that debt off,  after the war,  and fairly quickly!  It just takes time.  And it takes self-discipline on the part of our politicians to do their jobs for the good of the country!  Something we have not seen in decades!

The Democrats historically tended to want to spend too much during the good times,  although in recent decades they actually did better at balancing the budget than the Republicans (example:  Bill Clinton).  The Republicans historically did not want to spend,  even in the “bad times”,  thus doing severe damage during downturns,  which is why the Great Depression was as bad as it was. 

That stereotype has changed in recent decades,  as the GOP actually contributed more toward the current ballooning national debt than the Democrats,  with way too many tax cuts that favored-more the rich,  who really didn’t need them,  but who donate to campaigns!  How corrupt is that?  And both parties ballooned it in recent decades,  with wars financed by credit instead of Congressional appropriations!  When the Constitution requires appropriations! 

The trend has been,  for decades now,  that politicians misbehave,  prioritizing personal wealth and party advantage,  far above the good of the country!  That trend has become ever more severe as the decades roll by.  I consider that behavior a violation of their oaths of office!  And,  I think such violations need to be criminalized,  but that’s just me!  (I still consider the similar oath I took upon entering the Navy,  binding upon me,  even today.  It had no end date!  Neither does theirs!)

Just before he died,  my grandfather told me “the tools for good government were tar,  feathers,  guns,  and ropes”.  He told me that in his day,  they still used those tools,  and they had decent government.  He also told me that in my dad’s day,  we-the-people let the judges talk us out of using those tools for good government.  He then told me that the result of this,  in my day,  was that we had lousy government!  As far as I’m concerned,  he was exactly right!  He died some 6 decades ago,  and the problem is far worse now! 

The politicians generally corrupt very quickly now,  after only a term or two in office.  There are very few exceptions!  You-the-electorate have always had term limits:  just vote for the “other person”!  It doesn’t really matter who the “other person” is,  you really cannot do worse,  once the incumbent has corrupted!  But you might do better with the “other person”!   So,  play the odds is my advice!

And,  Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) agrees with me!  He said “Politicians are like diapers.  They need to be changed often,  and for exactly the same reason”.  With the 2-term limit for Presidents,  this is now more of a problem with whom we send to the House and Senate.

Please do something about this,  my fellow citizens!

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The time to dispose of rotting orange things is certainly this November!

Texas Grid Capacity Issues

Texas has its own electrical grid with very limited connections to the rest of the country.   This is how Texas can legally do things its own way,  instead of being forced to follow federal rules mandates.  By and large,  this has served fairly well,  but we do have a history of capacity shortfalls during chronic extreme summer cooling loads,  and now a couple of severe winter cold snap events. 

We in Texas are also faced with two imminent problems over which we have no control:  (1) fast population growth is very rapidly driving up demand,  and (2) the already-begun national electrification of the surface motor fleet will also massively drive up demand,  more than anyone wants to admit.  We will very soon need factor 1.5 (or more) increase in our electrical generation capacity,  and in the capacity of our transmission lines to carry that much more electricity.

There is a third problem,  over which we do have some control:  pollution emitted by our energy sources.  Some of this is “traditional” pollution,  such as particulates,  smoke,  and chemicals from the smokestacks,  plus that coming from the fuel extraction and transport activities.  Those include mining wastes,  spills from pipelines and rail cars,  etc.  Some of it is greenhouse gas emissions,  which,  it is now quite clear,  must also be reduced.

I found some data regarding the mix of energy sources on the Texas grid,  from the office of the State Comptroller of Public Accounts.  The data is for calendar year 2021,  which is recent enough to support making reasonable estimates.  I put those data into a spreadsheet and used it to create the multi-color pie chart,  plotted to scale,  in Figure 1.  I simply drew the two-color pie charts,  not-to-scale.

Figure 1 – The Current Mix of Energy Sources, and What We Have To Do Long-Term

Our basic situation is that we need to change the mix of energy sources to reduce emissions,  and we need to greatly increase overall capacity,  but we do not have to do those things in that order,  or even together!  Plus,  we still have some time to get it all done,  as long as we get started now.  

There are currently some practical limitations to the contribution of renewables (wind and solar).  Their intermittency requires emergency surge capacity in the other sources,  which limits those renewables to around 25% of the mix at most,  until there is such a thing as an affordable grid-scale energy storage technology,  ready to deploy.  Currently,  there is not!  But it may soon become available,  in the next very few years.

Of the energy sources,  two are fossil fuels:  coal and natural gas (very few power plants today use oil,  and none that I know of,  in Texas).  These have problems with emissions,  and those numbers are not the same for the two fuels.  A typical large power plant has an energy conversion efficiency in the neighborhood of 40%,  meaning only 40% of the fuel’s combustion energy can be turned into electricity.  This varies somewhat,  and is a little bit lower for surge plants,  and a little bit higher for base-load plants.   But that figure is close enough to use,  for estimating things,  as I did in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Basic Data for Coal and Natural Gas

The hand calculations in the figure show that natural gas has a wetter exhaust than coal,  which affects air pollutant chemistry,  but it also has only about half the greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide!  Its smokestack plumes are typically very much cleaner,  of the other airborne pollutants,  and it does not create nearly as much extraction wastes and troubles as coal does. 

On the other hand,  its main constituent,  methane,  is also a very potent greenhouse gas,  and currently a lot of it is lost to the atmosphere by leaks and flares.  Its mass production in the US now requires fracking,  which generates a lot of contaminated frack water,  the disposal of which can demonstrably cause earthquakes,  if not done responsibly,  which drives up costs somewhat. 

Thus,  there are a lot of risks to weigh,  some of which most people do not readily think about.  But as indicated in Figure 3,  the better choice is natural gas on a risk basis.  Plus,  here in recent years,  it is actually cheaper than coal,  on a price per unit releasable combustion energy basis.  It simply takes more tons of coal than natural gas,  to release the same energy,  as shown in Figure 2 above.

Figure 3 – Weighing the Risks of Coal Versus Natural Gas

What that suggests is the two-part plan presented below in Figure 4.  Initially,  we need to increase capacity rapidly,  but we need to do it without making the pollution and greenhouse gas problems worse.  I ran estimates for reaching 150% of current capacity,  by not increasing the coal in the mix,  but instead adding large amounts of natural gas,  wind,  solar,  and nuclear.  In my estimate,  all these but coal were increased to factor 1.615 times current contributions. 

I did not decrease coal,  I simply left it at its current energy contribution.  To achieve the 150% capacity,  the other sources had to increase more,  including natural gas,  which actually raised the fossil fuel contribution from 57 to 65% of the mix.  However,  by shifting more of the fossil contribution from coal to natural gas,  the emissions of carbon dioxide only increased to factor 1.33 times current levels.  That’s actually a decrease in emissions,  in a relative sense!

As coal plants age and decommission,  the plan in Figure 4 says to replace them with natural gas and nuclear plants in the near term.  We already know how to build both.  We will need to devise a way to incentivize this capacity increase,  so that installed capacity stays ahead of the increasing demand,  instead of falling behind and responding too late to increasing demand,  as it does now.

Note also the very small change in the renewables contribution to the mix:  to 25.8% of the new,  higher total,  compared to 24.0% of current.  That’s close enough to the fuzzy 25% limit on the intermittent renewables contribution,  that we could start this capacity increase without waiting for an affordable grid-scale energy storage technology!  Except for coal,  it’s just “more of everything”.

By the time we get this near-term change done,  that storage technology will very likely be available,  and we can start on the longer-term portion of the Figure 4 plan:  replace the fossil fuel plants as they age and decommission,  with renewables and nuclear!  Electricity from renewables is demonstrably cheaper than electricity from nuclear,  but we will need to keep both of those sources in the mix.  You do not want to place all your eggs in one basket! 

And note:  this does not prevent keeping some natural gas plants in the long-term mix,  as those are the very best choice for meeting demand surges.

One other note:  hydroelectric power is generated in Texas,  but the numbers are too small compared to the other sources,  to even show up in the plots.  We cannot really increase it,  because we have already dammed all the dammable rivers in Texas.  I should not have factored it up by 1.615,  but 1.615 times 0 is still 0,  so it did not matter.

Figure 4 – There is a Near-Term and a Long-Term Component to the Plan

We have people appointed by our elected politicians comprising the leadership of ERCOT.  That is the organization that,  together with the utility companies themselves,  manage the Texas grid. 

Up to this point,  neither ERCOT nor our elected politicians have chosen to incentivize increasing capacity.  That is a matter of public record.  It is precisely why capacity increase lags demand increase.  And,  that is the real source of the chronic summer and winter cold snap power shortfall troubles we have seen in recent years.   Which,  also as a matter of public record,  do cost lives!

And that lack of incentive for increasing capacity is what must change,  or none of this improvement plan (or any other) can happen!  There is no way around that ugly little fact of life!

The key here is the elected Texas politicians:  they make and enforce the laws,  and they appoint ERCOT’s leadership.  Thereby,  that is how they control what happens and what does not.  

The current crop of elected politicians has proven unwilling to address this critical need for incentives to increase excess capacity.  We’ve already seen it,  rather egregiously in the death toll and dislocations seen in the extreme cold snap of February 2021.  All that means is we Texans have the wrong people in those elected offices.  Their poor decisions have been killing Texans!

I suggest that if the current bunch will not serve the public good,  then we need a new crop!  This is an election year.  Vote the current bunch out.  It doesn’t matter who the opposition is,  you cannot do worse than what you have,  but you might do better with somebody different!

Or maybe you like no electricity for your air conditioner in August,  and no heating in extreme cold snaps! 

You decide!

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Here as Figure 5 is an image of the spreadsheet where I processed the data and made the plots,  for those who want to see how I did this:

Figure 5 --  Image of the Spreadsheet Used to Process the Numbers and Make the Plots

These two multi-color pie chart plots were used in two of the figures above,  the rest were all drawn in the old Windows “Paintbrush” utility (not the later 3-D version).

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Project 2025 is a Blueprint for a Dictatorship!

The following is the text of a viewer feedback email that I sent to PBS NewsHour,  CBS News,  and NBC News,  back on July 15^th,  2024!  I would have sent it to ABC News as well,  except that I could find no way to email them.  This predates Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election campaign by around a week.  Nothing about that withdrawal changes anything said here.

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You do realize,  do you not,  that Project 2025 is,  in point of fact,  a blueprint for imposing a Trump dictatorship upon the United States?  That is what the far right always attempts,  everywhere in the world that it comes to power!  And the “political spectrum” is not a straight line,  but a circle leading to that dictatorship,  no matter who tries to impose it! 

It works by emplacing utter loyalists in key elected and appointed positions,  who will do whatever is asked of them by the far right leaders,  even if illegal.  This is EXACTLY how Hitler consolidated his power as Chancellor into a dictatorship,  in 1930’s Germany!  It is exactly what is in the Project 2025 plan.

And it is already underway here in the US,  and has been for some time,  just not under that name.  Example:  packing the Supreme Court with justices who will make egregiously-bad decisions just to further the far right agenda,  which actually predates the Trump presidency for its start. 

Three of the offenders were put there by Trump himself,  aided and abetted by Mitch McConnell in the Senate,  who blocked a more moderate nomination from former president Obama on a flimsy excuse that they later ignored for Trump’s nominations.  (And THAT is McConnell’s true legacy,  even worse than acquitting Trump on both impeachments!)

Another example:  Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon,  who has been granting delay,  after delay,  after delay,  for Trump in the classified documents case,  until she and his lawyers could cook-up some excuse to dismiss the case entirely.  Which of course,  she just did! 

This mishandling of classified documents case was THE slam-dunk conviction case,  of all those brought!  That dismissal is NOT justice,  but her appointment is a part of what is now the Project 2025 plan for a Trump dictatorship,  although it,  too,  predates that name!  Yet I see no one in the mainstream media howling about any of that egregious malfeasance in office!

Given that federal judges are unaccountable to the public,  because of their lifetime appointments,  the only way to redress this evil is to impeach them.  You mainstream media folks should be shouting that from the rooftops!  Why are you not?

This kind of malfeasance in office is also starting to happen with local election officials,  who were put there to refuse to certify outcomes that the far right leaders don’t like.  And they already are starting to do exactly that!

If there ever was a story worthy of obsessive coverage,  this is it!

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sent to PBS newshour,  CBS evening news,  and NBC news,  Monday 7-15-2024

no reply of any kind seen,  as of 7-21-2024

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See also these postings:

7-21-2024          Biden Withdraws!

7-6-2024            Obsessive Coverage Obscures the Risks to Weigh (with updates)

6-28-2024          Thoughts on the Presidential Debate

1-23-2024          Trump Cult Warning

12-10-2023       Conspiracies Have Short Lifetimes

To get there quickly,  use the archive tool left of page.  All you need is the date of posting,  and the title of the article.  Click on the year,  then the month,  then the title if need be. 

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 Update 7-27-2024:  Trump,  speaking to a “conservative” Christian group,  says they need to vote this year,  and they need not vote again after that.  His words,  not mine!

Reading between the lines:  no more need to vote after he regains the White House,  because he will replace our democracy with his dictatorship.  (We will not be rid of him until he dies,  and even then there are plenty more Trump-wannabee would-be dictators waiting to take over.)

There it is:  right out of his own mouth,  if you but look past the party propaganda,  at what he actually said!

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Update 7-28-2024:  Readers,  please don't get me wrong!  I detest the far left just as much as I detest the far right!  As the circle diagram above shows,  both extremes lead to dictatorship,  violence,  and death.  They always have.  Historical far left examples include the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia,  the communists in 1949 China,  and the communists in 1959 Cuba.  (Not to mention what the Chinese communists did to Hong Kong,  and what they threaten to do with Taiwan.)  I simply see more evidence at this time of a far right threat here in the US,  and abroad (particularly in Europe),  than any sort of far left threat.

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Update 8-3-2024:  Want to see what the Project 2025 plan would look like if put into action?  Look at Maduro trying to steal the election in Venezuela,  regardless of the actual vote counts.  His hand-picked minions “overseeing” the election simply proclaimed him the victor.  That is exactly what Trump attempted after 2020,  but he did not have his hand-picked minions in place to do it for him.  This is right out of the playbooks used by the Nazis in 1933 Germany,  and the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia.  

Biden Withdraws!

Today (Sunday 7-21-2024) there was the sudden (but not unexpected) announcement that Joe Biden is withdrawing from the 2024 election race,  instead endorsing Kamala Harris as his preferred successor.  And we are seeing the usual BS from the GOP opposition,  up to and including a ridiculous demand from the Speaker of the House that President Biden immediately resign from office,  on the “theory” that if he cannot run for another term,  he cannot continue to serve. 

These are not any sort of “loyal opposition”,  they are people who demonstrably prioritize party advantage far above the good of the country,  in what I consider to be violation of their oaths of office.  And that oath-breaking needs to be criminalized!

I disagree with the obsessive coverage of Biden’s rapidly-advancing infirmities by the mainstream media!  They have been influencing most democrat voters and the big donors,  by convincing them Biden is unfit,  through sheer repetition (a propaganda thing used by the Bolsheviks in Russia,  the Fascists in Italy,  and the Nazis in Germany).  That is NOT the job of the American “fourth estate”!

I will say that the internet,  which is totally unpoliced for truth,  is actually far worse about lying than the mainstream media (with the long-known exception of Fox “News”). Your on-line echo chambers are lying to you,  very egregiously,  for nothing but profit!

We have had presidents with physical infirmities before,  most notably Franklin Roosevelt,  who actually died from his,  not very long after being re-elected for his fourth term.  It is the mental infirmities that we really need to worry about,  and we have seen that before,  too,  most notably with Ronald Reagan slowly succumbing to dementia in his second term,  and also with Woodrow Wilson’s sudden stroke.

I see no need for Biden to do anything but faithfully serve out his term.  If he becomes unable to serve before Jan. 20,  2025,  there is the 25^th amendment and a very capable Vice President Kamala Harris to step in and take power,  in a now well-defined and legal manner. 

As for Kamala Harris becoming the new Democratic nominee for the 2024 election,  I have no problem with that at all!  She is very capable,  well-versed in what has been going on,  and at age 59,  she is young enough to serve well for many years to come.  I think the Democratic Party would be utter fools not to nominate her almost immediately by some sort of acclamation.

To make Harris more credible to more American voters than former President Trump,  I think she should come up with a VP pick very soon;  possibly Michigan Governor Whitmer,  or any of a handful of others.  I also think she should retain Biden,  and former President Obama,  as some sort of special advisers,  outside the usual appointed or elected roles.  Age and infirmities would not matter in that kind of special role. 

More importantly,  she has to make the case that former President Trump is also too old to serve another term,  besides him being a threat to our democracy! 

He also stumbled during the June debate,  just not as obviously as President Biden stumbled.  This has been ignored by the mainstream media in their obsessive coverage of Biden’s stumbles,  but the evidence is there for all to see,  if they but look!  Where he lost his train of thought and repeated what he said seconds before,  indicates the mental infirmity stumbles as different from the other numerous deliberate acts of not answering a single question put to him,  even repeatedly.

As for the threat to democracy that former President Trump poses,  there is the Jan. 6 insurrection,  which he did nothing about for hours,  and then ineffectually,  when he finally did act.  Plus,  there are the remarks about “dictator on day one”,  and the “Project 2025” blueprint for imposing a dictatorship in the US,  which he falsely denies having anything to do with.  Plus his predilection to leave or disable NATO (also a matter of public record),  at a time when we are in a proxy war with Russia,  with Ukraine as our proxy.  That predilection is tantamount to treason in a time of war!

And then there is the chronic lying.  It is a matter of the public record that nearly every claim ever made by former President Trump was a lie,  even before his election in 2016!  If nearly everything said is false,  then how can a citizen track what the administration has really done?  Biden and Harris demonstrably do not suffer from that fault!

If Vice President Harris does indeed become our next President,  I strongly recommend to her that she award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Joe Biden as soon as possible!  This would be for his exemplary service to the country over his entire long career in public service,  and the many good things he did for the country as its President.

Requests for Rocket Engine Estimator Spreadsheet

I have seen multiple requests for my rocket engine performance estimator spreadsheet.  These requests are usually comments left on the “Rocket Engine Calculations” article posted here on “exrocketman” 1 October 2022.  That spreadsheet was “liqrockets.xls”,  and the recommended worksheet in it was “allin1des”. 

I have since reworked that spreadsheet analysis in a new Excel file named “liquid rockets.xlsx”,  with the worksheet “r noz alt”,  which includes the propellant data library worksheet from the older file,  plus an isentropic compressible flow worksheet for finding expansion Mach number and pressure ratio for a given expansion area ratio.   

This newer spreadsheet is the one I now recommend.  It comes as an Excel file,  plus a user manual as a pdf document,  and a png file into which you paste a data block generated by the spreadsheet,  for data reporting purposes.

There are 3 ways you can obtain this set of 3 files:  (1) contact me by email and I can email them to you,  (2) you can go the New Mars forums at newmars.com/forums/,  and go to the Meta New Mars section,  and to the thread titled “GW Johnson postings and @exrocketman1 youtube videos”,  with the links in post #298 of that thread,  or (3) try to use the direct link below.  These are free downloads.  You need to download the Excel spreadsheet file to make it work.  It has multiple worksheets.

Direct link to engine performance spreadsheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mcmgvky9p1xukj6m6nmqo/20240330-liquid-rockets.xlsx?rlkey=zypo0wegrzzhtudesw1fiqvjk&dl=0

Direct link to user manual for spreadsheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z01cwbeqesk8fnhy83o0n/20240330-User-manual-liquid-rockets.pdf?rlkey=xuoyzafq4og2tyiev3hnhpi33&dl=0

Direct link to the data reporting form:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9scws7nh485qs9xaqfwi3/20240330-engine-sizing-report.png?rlkey=pynvmgdkohwb0gixlvrnwb7fi&dl=0

This is what that data reporting form looks like:

This is a png file created in the old 2-D Windows “Paint” utility.  You cut out the example data block,  and paste in the one you created with the spreadsheet.  Then adjust the headings above the engine sketch to match what you need.

I do recommend that you visit the New Mars forums and take a look around.  You should consider joining the forums and participating.  If you would like to join,  send an email request to newmarsmember@gmail.com

 

PS -- I verified the links,  they work.
 

Texas Heat

 This one is presented as a funny,  without comment.  Enjoy.

Obsessive Coverage Obscures the Risks to Weigh

This article is a warning to the news networks to do your jobs properly!  The continuation of our democracy,  and perhaps world peace,  are at stake.  Obsessing only over the latest gaffe,  instead of reporting all the facts drives up ratings,  but it also distorts public perceptions and opinions!  This is an unstable feedback,  that has already gotten out of control,  with the reporting of the June presidential debate.

Assessing Cognitive Difficulties

Everybody is focused on Joe Biden’s fitness to serve another term,  after his debacle in the June debate.  Transient or not,  his physical and mental infirmity was obvious.  The coverage of this is so all-consuming,  that it is actually driving opinions about this issue,  to the exclusion of other facts.

Nobody seemed to notice Donald Trump’s own mental infirmity,  which (so far) is much less obvious than Biden’s,  but still there for all to see,  if they but look!  The obsessive coverage of Biden’s problem completely ignores this!  And that is both wrong and irresponsible!

Trump never answered a single question,  even when the questions were repeatedly put to him,  instead always repeating the same debunked lies that he has spouted for some years now.  Dangerous lies,  too:  one has already sparked an attempted insurrection!  

Part of this question avoidance might be deliberate,  but part is not.  Failure to deal with an unexpected question can be a definite sign of cognitive decline!  Trump even lost his train of thought a few times (just like Biden),  but recovered more quickly than Biden,  simply repeating what he had already said seconds previously.  That fast repeat is actually how you can tell the cognitive stumbles from the deliberate question avoidance!

Who Would Take Over if Unable to Serve

Biden has a credible backup in VP Kamala Harris,  should he become incapable of serving while in office,  a fairly likely possibility at his age and in his condition. 

Trump does not have such a credible backup,  and at his very-similar age,  the very same risk of becoming unable to serve also applies!

We do not yet know who the Trump VP pick might be,  but all the purported candidates would be new to the job,  and they all spout the same dangerous and debunked lies that Trump spouts,  being selected for utter loyalty,  not ability.  I see no good choices there for the country! [Update 7-17-2024:  it is Sen. J. D. Vance of Ohio,  quite the far-right extremist on most issues,  and a former "never-Trumper" who is now a fierce loyalist,  spouting the same lies as Trump.]

Behavior that Poses Threats

And then there is the behavioral history:  it is on the public record that Trump threatened to renege on our obligation to defend our NATO allies.  He clearly would prefer that we were not part of NATO,  and has said publicly that he would give Putin everything he wants in Ukraine and elsewhere in eastern Europe. That is a serious threat to world peace,  and to the other democracies.

It is also on the public record that Trump also tried multiple means,  both legal and illegal,  to overturn his 2020 election loss.  This included using his debunked lies about the 2020 election over multiple months (not just the “ellipse speech”,  although that was the final trigger),  to finally incite an insurrection at the Capitol,  on Jan. 6,  2021.  That was his last remaining possibility of staying in power past the end of his term.  He so very clearly did not want to leave office, and that was,  and is,  a very serious threat to our democracy!

And he chronically lies,  about everything.  The fact checking makes that chronic lying a matter of public record.  That makes it very much harder to understand what the executive branch is really doing,  or not doing,  when nothing that is said can be trusted!

Joe Biden poses none of those threats!  And yet I never see that reported!

My Criticism of the Obsessive Coverage

So,  I ask all the news media,  where is the reporting of this overall picture?  I don’t see it!  I just see obsessive coverage of the latest flap or gaffe,  with no overall context.  This is irresponsible! 

The obsessive coverage of Biden’s debate problems is just sensationalism,  to the point of actually driving viewer beliefs,  and the response of pandering politicians to it.  That way lies high ratings,  yes,  but also the destruction of our democracy,  for lack of a responsible “fourth estate”!

Consequences of Irresponsible Reporting

Without the whole picture,  no voter can properly weigh the risks!  So,  the bulk of them don’t.  

And that is how we ended up with the chaotic disaster that was Trump’s term in office.  Complete with vilification and persecution of refugee immigrants,  to the point of separating children from their families,  that resembled nothing so much as what happened entering the Nazi death camps!  And sucking-up to the worlds’ worst despots,  in public!  Plus threatening to renege on our NATO obligations!  Not to mention that nearly every claim he ever made was a lie.  And still is.

Concluding Remarks

So,  I am asking you to change your ways,  and report all the facts,  and also report on how they fit in the big picture.  That is what all Americans desperately need,  so we can weigh the risks,  and vote wisely.  We once had news reporting that actually did this,  several decades ago.  We need it again!

A Visual Example of Weighing Risks This November

This is what weighing the risks, which requires all the data,  actually looks like,  for the election coming this November.  Considering the similarity of the two candidates’ ages,  and how fast physical and mental condition can deteriorate with advancing age,  both parties are offering the wrong choices!  One candidate is deteriorating a bit sooner than the other,  but such deterioration is inevitable,  for both of them,  before the next term will be over. 

But,  given those choices,  one candidate brings huge risks,  while the other does not.  This kind of overall picture thing is exactly what you news media should be showing to the American public in your opinion pieces.  It is your civic duty!

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Update 7-9-2024:  My wife found this cartoon on her Facebook feed.  It came from a good friend who posted it there,  for which I thank him.  I do not know the ultimate source,  being unable to make out the signature on it. 

It illustrates quite well my point about there being obsessive coverage of Biden's infirmity,  to the exclusion of  any coverage of  the dangerous problems Trump brings,  that include the beginnings of his cognitive infirmity,  also visible (but ignored) in the June debate.  ("MSM" on the figure in the cartoon is the "mainstream media".)

That unbalanced,  and therefore irresponsible,  obsessive coverage is actually now fueling the calls from other Democrats for Biden to step aside,  thus influencing the election,  and also thus doing some of the Trump campaign's job for them!  Pandering politicians respond to this crap as the next bandwagon to jump upon,  and so apparently do some big donors.  

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Update 7-14-2024:  It took an assassination attempt upon Donald Trump to turn off the obsessive media coverage of Biden's infirmities-with-age,  in favor of obsessive coverage of the Trump assassination attempt.  I find that a sad example of the very thing I am complaining about:  obsessive coverage of details that utterly ignores context (the "big picture").  

I have never made any secret that I oppose Trump and everything he stands for.  But assassination is not the way to stop him!  It would seem that Biden agrees with me on that,  based on his public statements. 

I would rather see the various judges stop giving Trump "get out of jail free" cards,  and get on with the various criminal trials properly.  Those have been delayed far too long,  and should have taken place before the election.  

What would have come out in court would have had a very definite utility toward weighing the risks of Trump presidency against the risks of a Biden presidency,  for making a wiser choice in the November election.  We have been denied that,  by those delays!

I see some judges that ought to be impeached for those "get out of jail free" cards they have been handing out to Trump.  Justice should be the same for all,  and we ordinary citizens certainly do not get those "get out of jail free" cards.

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Update to Risk Balance,  with Harris Replacing Biden                                               7-22-2024

Harris poses little or no risks from age and infirmities.  At age 59,  she is young enough to serve vigorously for many years yet (while Trump cannot).  The rest of her risks are about the same as with Biden,  excepting the choice of VP.  Anybody she chooses will be as new to the job as Trump’s pick Vance,  posing about the same risk.  The revised risk balance still says the same thing: