How MAGA Killed America’s Brand

The fossil fuel industry got what it wanted – a Presidency entirely pliable to their agenda, if only because he was only interested in pursuing his own robbery and selloff of America.
But the cost has been staggering. None of us would have believed it could happen so fast.
Trump has done what Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, 9-11, Iraq, and Covid failed to do – crush the American Brand, as a cultural touchstone, the aspirational ideal, the world’s best hope of a better life, rule of law, and the prospect of a rules based order.
A friend in Iceland once said to me, “We’re all Americans now, after all, aren’t we?”

Because the world looked to America as a gold standard for governance, for democracy, for the best science and universities, and for a system that, for all its flaws, would eventually find the right way – they gave us grace, and enough confidence to make our currency the global reserve standard, the refuge for capital that for decades underwrote our profligate national debt.
If you thought this was just politics of the moment, if you thought this was not going to have a long term effect, you’re in for a nasty surprise.
Good essay here, it’s long, so I am just excerpting the first part.

Gandalv on X:

There’s a moment many of us remember—standing in a Tokyo 7-Eleven at 2 AM, cracking open an ice-cold Coca-Cola. Or queuing outside an Apple Store in Berlin, giddy with anticipation. Or watching Friends reruns in a Melbourne apartment, laughing at jokes that felt universal. America wasn’t just a country then. It was a feeling. A promise. The place where anything was possible, where justice prevailed, where the underdog could win.

That America is dead.

And we need to talk about what killed it—because this isn’t about politics as usual. This isn’t about left versus right, red versus blue. This is about watching a nation that once exported hope now export shame. And the world is responding in the only language that truly matters: they’re walking away.

The Numbers Don’t Lie: Billions Lost, Trust Shattered

Let’s start with the cost, because Americans respect a balance sheet. They worship GDP and twerk for it.

Tesla’s European sales collapsed by over 40% in multiple quarters of 2025. Not because the cars got worse—because the CEO became synonymous with an administration that Europeans view with barely concealed horror. When Elon Musk stands beside Donald Trump, every Tesla on the Autobahn becomes a political statement people no longer want to make.

Starbucks lost more than $20 billion in market value in 2025. The green mermaid, once a symbol of cosmopolitan coffee culture, now carries the stain of association with American foreign policy decisions that much of the world finds morally bankrupt.

Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nike—brands that once represented the pinnacle of global cool—are now actively avoided by consumers from Toronto to Tokyo. Not boycotted in angry protest, but quietly set aside. Replaced. Forgotten.

Continue reading “How MAGA Killed America’s Brand”

Bad Bunny Highlights Puerto Rico Power Outages

It was something a lot of folks might not have gotten, but Meteorologist Ryann Jones of KXAS Dallas Ft Worth made the right connection immediately during the Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance (below), when the set featured workers on power poles.
Bad Bunny’s home in Puerto Rico has been increasingly exposed to more and more extreme storms and hurricanes, like Maria in 2017, that have battered the island’s power system and highlighted the need for more resilient and distributed energy system.

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Racist in Chief is also the Climate Denier in Chief. Not Coincidence.

As I’ve been saying for many years, there is some kind of organic, hard-wired, brain structure connection between hostility to climate science, and racism.
Clear evidence, again, this week, that there is no bottom, and no limit to what Republicans, and supposed “Christians”, will allow, and indeed celebrate.

Below, Trump doubles down. “It was not a mistake.”
Of course not.

Continue reading “Racist in Chief is also the Climate Denier in Chief. Not Coincidence.”

With Farms in Crisis, Clean Energy Bans make No Sense

As experts warn of a possible “widespread collapse” in US Agriculture due to the erratic and incompetent policies of the current administration, Farmers across the midwest are desperate to diversify their incomes, and clean energy is one way to do it.

In Mansfield Ohio, 2 former County Commissioners write about this need, and the irrational anti-clean energy movement that the fossil fuel interests have ginned up across the country.

Richland Source (Mansfield Ohio):

As former Richland County Commissioners, we understand the weight of decisions that affect our community’s economic future and the rights of our neighbors. 

That’s why we’re deeply concerned about the ban on future renewable energy development that our current County Commissioners passed last summer — and why we’re asking voters to join us in voting “No” on the May 5th referendum.

For years, Richland County took a balanced, common-sense approach to energy development proposals. If a farmer or landowner wanted to lease their property for a solar facility or wind farm, the county reviewed each project individually. 

We would hear from neighbors, consider local concerns, and make decisions based on the specific merits of each proposal. That system worked because it respected both community input and private property rights.

The current commissioners threw that approach out the window. Their blanket ban doesn’t just prevent bad projects — it eliminates the possibility of any solar or wind development in 11 of our 18 townships, regardless of whether a project makes sense or has community support.

Continue reading “With Farms in Crisis, Clean Energy Bans make No Sense”

Bipartisan Experts Warn of “Widespread Collapse” in US Agriculture

As the Trump administration, working in concert with fossil fuel organized disinformation campaigns at the local level, slows the construction of clean energy projects, farmers who desperately want those solar, wind and battery projects on their land, to diversify their income, are being squeezed by catastrophic agricultural policies and tariffs, which have collapsed US farmer’s access to global markets.
Looking across the whole economy, it’s as if the Trump administration was a precision guided heat seeking missile aimed at destroying the most important sectors of American power and influence, and it’s working.

New York Times:

Current economic conditions and Trump administration policies could lead to “a widespread collapse of American agriculture,” a bipartisan coalition of former Agriculture Department officials and leaders of farm groups warned in a letter on Tuesday.

The letter to the heads and ranking members of the House and Senate agricultural committees was signed by 27 influential figures in the farming sector, including former heads of powerful associations representing corn and soybean farmers and officials from the Bush and Reagan administrations. It expressed dismay at the “damage done to American farmers.”

While there are many reasons for increasing farm bankruptciesand decreasing profits, “it is clear that the current administration’s actions, along with congressional inaction, have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical ag research and staffing,” the letter warned.

The signatories called on Congress to relax tariffs for the agriculture sector, expand international markets, pass a new farm bill and restore funding for agriculture research and staffing.

Continue reading “Bipartisan Experts Warn of “Widespread Collapse” in US Agriculture”

Trump Administration Blocking Clean Energy That Even Their Own Voters Want

Katie Miller, spouse of Trump’s powerful Deputy Chief of Staff, weighs in favoring solar energy

See elsewhere on this page for explainers about the soaring cost of energy.
One big piece is that the lowest hanging fruit, solar and wind projects that are quick to build, and produce the lowest price power, have been “blockaded” by an administration that has much more interest locking in a generation of power and control for their fossil fuel donors, than it does in lowering prices for consumers.

Axios:

A majority of Trump-coalition voters back solar power, especially if the panels are made in the U.S. and without Chinese materials, polling shared exclusively with Axios shows. 

Why it matters: Trump officials are moving against renewables on several fronts, including Interior Department permitting restrictions and the GOP budget law hastening the end of project subsidies. 

  • But the poll commissioned by U.S. manufacturer First Solar suggests that a big swath of his coalition is partial to the tech.

Driving the news: Fabrizio, Lee & Associates polled what it calls a “GOP+” sample — a mix of Republicans, GOP-leaning independents and Trump voters.

  • It found 51% favor utility-scale solar (large plants that generate electricity fed directly into the grid), while 30% oppose it.

The share in favor soars to 70% if the panels are made in domestic factories, using U.S. materials, and have no ties to China.

  • 68% agree with the statement: “[W]e need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs.”

Catch up fast: Tony Fabrizio, a partner in the firm, has been chief pollster for President Trump’s campaigns. 

The big picture: “GOP+ voters want America to have energy independence and for their electric bills to be affordable,” a polling memo states.

Meanwhile:

New York Times:

While Mr. Trump’s attacks on offshore wind have been highly visible, his administration has also been hobbling solar and wind energy projects on land by halting or delaying federal approvals that were once routine.

Continue reading “Trump Administration Blocking Clean Energy That Even Their Own Voters Want”

Bookmark These Energy Price Explainers

Affordability is the buzzword for the coming elections, and the price of power is one big indicator that is flashing red for a lot of Americans.

Good explainers, starting with this CNN piece above. Pretty much all the components are there.
While increasing demand is a factor, studies show that merely building more data centers does not automatically increase demand. At a certain point that may change, especially if the Trump administration keeps blocking new capacity.

Both reports rightly reference extreme weather events as a significant contributor.
Elsewhere on this page, see some reports about the impacts of the recent ice storm in Nashville, where many residents are still without power after almost 2 weeks.

When Development Comes to Farm Communities

Farm Progress:

For five generations, Keith Peters’ family farmed around Rickenbacker International Airport in Lockbourne, Ohio. Then bulldozers arrived.

“The property around that farm was sold for warehousing. There aren’t any farmers living there anymore,” said Peters, now 65. Over decades, he has watched development “steal the community” of his childhood.

As modern industry pushes into agricultural areas, farmers are losing land and facing added stressors such as busier roads, changing culture and non-ag neighbors who don’t understand farming. 

Multigenerational farming families are caught between preserving legacy and accepting lucrative buyouts that could fund larger operations elsewhere. Even then, there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again because tech-driven development, such as data centers and solar, is becoming detached from population centers.

Today’s tech-driven development isn’t just pressuring farms adjacent to population centers. When developers throw outrageous monetary sums at farmland, it’s tempting to take the money and run. And across the country, countless farm families have made that choice as urban sprawl spirals outward from city centers. 

When those sales go through, they can have a domino effect: Payouts from the deal often get funneled via 1031 tax-deferred exchanges into farming parcels three, four or 10 times larger in some distant neighborhood where the farmer sets up new operations. That, in turn, puts pressure on local land values and can foster resentment with new neighboring farmers. 

Continue reading “When Development Comes to Farm Communities”

While Florida Freezes, Rockies in Snow Drought

Doing an interview with one of the few talk format radio stations left in the state this morning, interviewer observed that although everyone is saying that this winter in the upper midwest has been cold, hard and snowy – if you remember more that 40 years ago, this would just have been called “winter”.

While the Eastern US has had a lot of snow, and continuing cold, the Rockies are in a snow drought that is impacting the economy, above.

What happens in the mountains in winter, makes a big impact on what happens in Agricultural zones in Summer…

Continue reading “While Florida Freezes, Rockies in Snow Drought”

In Sweden: First Electric Hydrofoil Ferry

Description:

The world’s first electric hydrofoil service is officially in operation! Passengers are now welcome onboard the Candela P-12 ‘Nova’, traveling from Ekerö center to Stockholm City Hall.
Cutting travel times in half and eliminating emissions, we’re unlocking the potential of our waterways.
The P-12 will run three times a day as a pilot project in collaboration with @regionstockholm, and the regular SL fare applies