Monday, December 23, 2019

Trump on Wind (Oy Vey)

On Saturday impeached President Trump gave a speech to the conservative student group Turning Point USA. He talked about wind power, and it went like most things do with Trump:
“I never understood wind,” Trump said, according to Mediaite. “I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous — if you are into this — tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right?”
Suddenly Trump is the world's expert on wind. Suddenly he notices we have a world. Apparently doesn't connect that to his administration's policies on the environment.
“So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right spewing, whether it is China or Germany, is going into the air,” the president added.
Suddenly Trump cares about something's carbon footprint.
“A windmill will kill many bald eagles,” he said, according to Mediate. “After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is OK. But why is it OK for windmills to destroy the bird population?”
Suddenly Trump cares about birds.

As The Hill pointed out, wind turbines kill about 1/6th the number of birds that cats do. And coal and oil and gas kill many millions.

PS: That first sentence, "I know windmills very much" -- sounds like something a 3rd grader would say. Help us.

16 comments:

thefordprefect said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
thefordprefect said...

Trump seems to have mental capability problems. The voters seem not to notice.
Boris (UK) seems to have truth problems. The voters seem not to notice.

The world has gone full "Idiocracy"

Never mind just keep watering plants with Brawdo the thirst mutilator. The world will seem a better place

Thomas said...

thefordprefect, Trump supporters notice, they just don't care as long as he sticks it to the "libtards". They think it's just a game, and that by annoying his opponents Trump is winning.

David in Cal said...

I was surprised to see anyone defend Trump's comments. However, blogger Anne Althouse, a retired law professor, wrote "There's a lot of laughing at Trump for saying things like that, but I think WaPo and other Democrats know that he's talking about the real-life experience of ordinary people who can't always be thinking about the climate of the distant future. You know they have a world — right? — a world now that they have to live in, with dishwashers and toilets and lightbulbs and straws."

If you ignore the incomprehensibility of Trump's gobbledygook, she may have a point. There may be considerable support for a policy of not making making sacrifices to fight climate change. A wise pundit said, "The American voter is a selfish pig." Many Americans vote for current day giveaways, ignoring the long-term economic consequences. So, it's not surprising that they'd ignore long-term climate consequences.

Cheers

David Appell said...

Thomas, I think you're exactly right. It's very odd. They don't seem concerned about anything other than the insults.

David in Cal said...

Thomas and David - insulting Trump supporters is unfair and counter-productive. As you point out, Trump's speech is sometimes disorganized and hard to understand. OTOH his actions have been quite successful. Trump supporters admire his REsults as well as his INsults.

One positive thing about the way he talks: he has a good sense of humor. He ad libs funny or comic bits. Sometimes his humor is self-deprecatory. Frequently his humor is nasty or insulting about other people. Either way, Trump is generally funny and entertaining. Few politicians of either party can match him in that respect.

BTW Democrats have used insults so routinely that people hardly notice them. In fact, many people believe them. E.g., recall Hillary's comment "You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

David Appell said...

I think insulting Trump supporters is completely fair, and necessary. They have accepted Trump's 13K+ lies -- what kind of rotten person accepts such lying?

If you support Trump, DiC, how can you possibly accept so many lies? What is wrong with you????

Trump is clearly sexist, racist, xenophobic and islamaphobic. You know it too, so don't try to deny it.

Trump cheated on his wife with a porn star. How can you possibly accept that???

Most of all, Trump mocked a disabled man. If you accepted that you are a disgusting human being, period.

David in Cal said...

David -- Trump's policies have been excellent for the American people. In particular, his policies have been excellent for black and Hispanic Americans. I agree that Trump personally is a poor example to look up to. Not that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were such paragons. Obama attended a bigoted, hate-filled church for 20 years with his wife and children. Maybe that was a smart political move, but I cannot forgive him for raising his children in that racist atmosphere.

Nevertheless, I agree with you, David, that Trump is a disgusting person, in a number of ways. OTOH he has been doing an excellent as President. Particularly compared to his two predecessors. Bush's misbegotten invasion of Iraq turned into a disaster. Obama's decisions to overthrow Khadafy and to expand the war in Afghanistan were bizarre and pointless. It's no surprise that they led to disaster. Trump's foreign policy has avoided that level of f*ckup.

In short, I wish Trump were a better human being, but his policies have produced widespread prosperity and are moving the country toward peace. That's a lot, in my book.

Cheers

David Appell said...

"David -- Trump's policies have been excellent for the American people"44

Trump mocked a disabled person. That alone should have been the end of it. Republicans elected him anyway, proving they were as much of a POS as he is. And they think they are Christians. They are moral cowards. They have no moral standing whatsoever. They are moral rodents, no matter how many unemployment points have been subtracted from black and hispanic unemployment.

Mussolini made the trains run on time.
Hitler packed them in a very efficient manner.

David Appell said...

David, your justifications for Trump prove the US is already on a terrible repugnant track, morally reprehensible, ethically perverse -- and perhaps it is already too late.

You don't like Trump because of what he supposedly did for black and hispanic employment -- as if that wasn't simply the continuation of the economy Obama left him.

David Appell said...

How many disabled people can be justifiably mocked for each percentage point decline in the black unemployment rate?

Thomas said...

David, the economy was already in strong growth before Trump gained power. I'll give you that he hasn't crashed it, but neither do I think his policies have done much to boost it. What is troubling is that the budget deficit keeps growing even in good times, and that this seems to be what is fueling the growth. This will make handling the next inevitable recession much harder.

Nor have Trump exactle left Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. It's just that the press has largely tired writing about it. Trumps keeps everyone busy with his lies and scandals so important issues get neglected.

David in Cal said...

David and Thomas - you both make the mistake of assuming that a growing economy will naturally continue to grow, like Newton's 1st law. In fact, actual historical results show that economic expansions have always been limited. The Obama expansion was due to end. Trump's policies extended the expansion to a duration never before seen in history. E.g., see This is now the longest US economic expansion in history https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/02/this-is-now-the-longest-us-economic-expansion-in-history.html

Thomas - Trump hasn't left Syria and Afghanistan, but he is reducing our troop levels. See Trump admin intends to announce withdrawal of about 4,000 troops from Afghanistan
Trump had made clear to his advisers earlier this year that he wanted to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the November 2020 election.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-admin-intends-announce-withdrawal-more-4-000-troops-afghanistan-n1102201

Trump has other accomplishments as well. The rate of black murder victims was rising sharply in the last two years of the Obama Administration. That reversed under Trump. Thousands of black Americans are alive because of the change in policy.

David, I agree about Trump's ugly personal failings. However, the nation is doing extremely well. I believe his policies are the reason.

Thomas said...

David, I hope you note how your headlines state "intends to announce" and "wanted", not that he has he actually have drawn down troops.

At the end of Obama's period as president there were supposed to be about 8400 US soldiers in Afghanistan, which turned out to be around 11000 in reality by later accounting. Now there is supposed to be around 13000. A strange way of reducing troop levels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_U.S._troops_from_Afghanistan

Lars Karlsson said...

David, I think you got the bird numbers wrong. From the article:
"Estimates of how many birds are killed by wind turbines are all over the place, but the new study estimates that roughly 150,000 birds are hit by wind turbines each year in the United States. It might seem callous to call that number small, but it pales in comparison to the carnage wrought by cats, which kill more than a billion birds annually."

So 150,000 vs more than 1,000,000,000. That is not 1/6th.

Ned said...

"Trump hasn't left Syria and Afghanistan, but he is reducing our troop levels."

Oops.