Gregory Todd

Another lovely geology day in the Hebrides. An Sgùrr on Eigg is magic combination of a highly satisfying walk, amazing scenery and a cracking geological detective story (complete with smoking gun).

Republicans to Pay for Trump Tax Cuts With Sales of Public Land House Republicans have added a plan to raise billions of dollars to help pay for US President Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts through the sale of thousands of acres of federal land — a politically cha...

Never a good idea to sell assets to support your lifestyle.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Opinion | Will This Conservative Legal Doctrine Undo Trump’s First Months in Office? (Gift Article) What goes around, comes around. And it is not likely to be good for the White House.

The Major Questions Doctrine - news to me, but here is what could boomerang back on the President
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/o...

Today's headline in Japan's Nikkei Shinbum: "Standard-bearer for free trade, America, suddenly announces "Sakoku" [Edo era closed-country] policy. Turning point in post-War order".
Yup.

Keep in mind that *at no time* will they consider balancing the budget by increasing taxes on the rich. They are doing the opposite and know this will not look good. So the plan will be to trigger a recession, cause some pain, and hope to renegotiate the US debt.

Opinion | The Rise and Fall of Elon Musk (Gift Article) His belief that liberal democracy has failed and that technologists should lead can be traced to the unusual life of his grandfather.

**A MUST READ**
The Failed Ideas That Drive Elon Musk www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...

This little-known company is a major funder of right-wing politics. You’ve probably eaten their chicken. And no, it’s not Chick-fil-A.

Should we care at all about the lives of chickens?
www.vox.com/future-perfe...

The philosophy behind Trump’s Dark Enlightenment An English magus of anti-democratic neoreaction has become a touchstone for the alt-right

The philosophy behind Trump’s Dark Enlightenment - on.ft.com/3DUYvQD via @FT
In which Peter Theil and others state flatly that freedom and democracy or incompatible - So democracy must go

Greenpeace Is Ordered to Pay Energy Transfer, a Pipeline Company, $660 Million (Gift Article) The environmental group had said the lawsuit, over its role in a protest movement, could mean an end to its operations in the United States.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/c...

No more environmental suits.
This is the Peter Thiel approach: Spend millions on legal fees, but bankrupt your opponent

From the Exuma chain, a good spot to watch some "ex-X" debris!?!

Nope. Just fodder for Trump's ad campaigns

Peter Thiel’s Network Is Quietly Shaping Trump’s Government The tech magnate has many links to the new Trump administration and the cost-slashing effort led by Elon Musk.

If you don't know about Peter Thiel, you should read up. The quiet Elon Musk.
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

"As much as 5,000,000 pounds, or 548 tons, of carbonic acid is formed by respiration in London alone in 24 hours. And where does all this go? Up into the air."
- Michael Faraday, Lecture VI, The Chemistry of a Candle (1859) (lectures at the Royal institution)

Unfortunate, but this is where we are
www.facebook.com/share/v/1BSe...

February 23, 2025 Something is shifting,” scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder posted on Bluesky yesterday.

“I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”
--- Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), 1950
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

February 22, 2025 Last night’s Friday Night News Dump was a doozy: Trump has purged the country’s military leadership.

"Razin' Caine" - totally unqualified. Maybe Trump really is a Putin agent?

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Fact-check: Did Ukraine start its war with Russia, as Trump claims? Trump has blamed Ukrainian President Zelenskyy for starting the war with Russia, fuelling a war of words amid talks.

He is living in a "disinformation space". Even his former Vice President denounces him as a liar.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/...

Apparently, I'm not the only one to think that China is doing just that

Louis Pasteur’s Relentless Hunt for Germs Floating in the Air (Gift Article) In 19th-century France, the young chemist challenged the theory of spontaneous generation and discovered an invisible world of airborne microbes.

Pasteur and the Mer de Glace! Great stuff www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/s...

February 17, 1740, birthday of Horace Benedict de Saussure.
He argued that naturalists should collect observations and measurements in the field. He climbed some of the highest peaks in the Alps, studied alpine-type minerals & described large-scale folding

How Elon Musk and the Right Are Trying to Recast Reporting as ‘Doxxing’ (Gift Article) Right-wing influencers are criticizing journalists who have published public information about government employees.

gift article www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/b...

Opinion | The only cure for Democrats’ woes is a long, hard look in the mirror Introduce bills. Ditch identity politics. Recruit charisma. Democrats have to snap out of it.

Much food for thought. Dem leaders need to read these letters, all.
wapo.st/4aVLPoG

Visualizing the international reach of U.S. funding cut by Trump Using graphics to illustrate the scope of U.S. foreign aid spending and analyzing how the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts could play out across the world.

I see. It's about Ukraine.
wapo.st/4jRuZLW

To take their side for one moment, I think they would say that they are pushing costs of research away from the government, on to universities that can afford to pay more. Their aim then is really to hurt the universities, more than science. Or so they would say

Could be a Japanese woodblock print. Except that it's a digital image, so it isn't!

They may bungle things too. Yet it is fascinating to see America tearing down all the bridges that has built

I Know What Musk is Up To The following headline appeared on my Google News feed this morning: “Palantir CEO Hails Musk’s DOGE Disruption: ‘Some People Are Going to Get Their Heads Cut Off’.” If you have not heard of Palantir,...

www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

Don’t Let Trump Turn X and TikTok Into State-Run Social Media The platforms are in danger of essentially being nationalized by the president.

🎁 Gift : Don’t Let Trump Turn X and TikTok Into State-Run Social Media www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...