THE DAILY IMPACT: Recent Episodes
Tom Lewis
Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I was the news editor of a television station in the Shenandoah Valley. I was also the anchor of the two principal news broadcasts, at 6 and 11 pm. One night, while preparing the 11 pm, a story came across the wire: “State … Continue reading →
Donald Trump is loudly and frequently promising to execute a coup d’état if he is re-elected president — not merely to take office, but to convert the entire federal government to a fascist dictatorship, with himself as the dictator, perhaps for life. I have a question: why is anyone taking … Continue reading →
I discovered the power of affirmation by accident, a long time ago, and it has made a profound difference in the way I regard people and politics ever since. Allow me to tell you the story. Once upon a time my family and I moved to a new county. We … Continue reading →
Part 4. The Great Poll Faults In mid-May, 2024, the conventional wisdom — aka the narrative adopted by virtually every member of the chattering class — is that Joe Biden is an unusually unpopular president, is behind in the polls, and that therefore Donald Trump has, to quote an otherwise … Continue reading
Part 3. The Third Decision In order to participate in an election, a citizen of the United States has to make, and act on, three decisions. One must register. This is a decision to participate actively in civic life, and requires making an effort — going to the courthouse, or … Continue reading
Part 2. The Rules of the Game Now that we have a clear view of the playing field, aka the electorate, it is pretty obvious what you have to do to win an election: notify the members of your party (about one-third of the electorate) that you are running and … Continue reading
Part One. The Playing Field Four years ago I gave to my local Democratic Club a talk titled, “Why Donald Trump Will Not Win the 2020 Election.” Last month I reprised the talk, but this time it was titled, “Why Donald Trump Cannot Win the 2024 Election.” This conclusion is … Continue reading →
The precious few folks who are still checking here for content deserve an apology and an explanation. I apologize for stiffing you for so long. And I want to explain. I have been writing about the imminent collapse of industrial civilization in this space for 15 years, since the publication … Continue reading →
For decades the prevailing assumption has been that the primary enemies of environmental health, the essential aiders and abetters of catastrophic climate change, were the barons of industry, who sacrificed the planet for profit. Undeniably, they played a part. But they are not the main villains of this story. An … Continue reading
Every year, environmental czars and ministers and activists, together with a gaggle of lobbyists and politicians from around the world, mount their private jets and (leaving a haze of contrails behind them) converge on a posh Middle Eastern spa to sip champagne, nibble on caviar and talk about what a … Continue reading
When I was little, and got upset because the thunder was too loud or too close, my mother would reassure me by saying the noise was made by the gods bowling in their celestial floating bowling alley. I don’t know how this was supposed to reassure me. The idea of … Continue reading
For most of my life I relished every technological advance that came my way. I remember when we got electricity at the farm when I was learning to read by the murky light of kerosene lamps. I remember the thrill of being able to illuminate an entire room with brilliant … Continue reading
London, Paris, and Dubai — locations in October and November of 2023 of international conferences on global climate change. Signs that at long last, serious attention is being paid to this existential threat to humanity? Not hardly. First out of the gate was the gathering of the Alliance for Responsible … Continue reading
It is nothing less than surreal for those of us who expect an imminent collapse of industrial civilization to see the American public and its political leaders either studiously ignore the rapidly mounting evidence of multiple existential threats, or to react in increasingly lunatic ways. A few examples: James Hansen … Continue reading
An astonishing study using new genetic methods to research human history has discovered evidence that bolsters my long-held belief that the impending crash of industrial society does not necessarily imply the extinction of the human race. My belief has not been based on science, of course — I am not … Continue reading
It is harder every day to have a discussion about any public issue that does not slide quickly into anger over irreconcilable differences. This is partly due to massive, deliberate attempts to pollute our language with lies and conspiracy theories untethered to any notion of reality, a fog of misinformation … Continue reading →
Palliative care, as I understand it, is given to a patient when doctors have given up on finding a cure, or even reversing the progression of the patient’s disease. The purpose of palliative care is to keep the patient as comfortable as possible, by treating the symptoms, while he is … Continue reading →
Acrid smoke from unrestrained wildfires burning in remote Canadian forests this spring and summer has repeatedly fouled the air and dimmed the sun in vast swaths of the US Northeast and Midwest. Because of it, for a time the air quality in New York City was the worst of any … Continue reading →
“Private equity,” “hedge funds” and “wealth management” are the current euphemisms for what insanely wealthy people do with astronomical sums of money in pursuit of ever more astronomical sums of money. All the terms used for the practice could be replaced with the more honest, “piracy,” were it not for … Continue reading →
[A beach house in Rodanthe, North Carolina succumbs to risings seas. Unthinkable?] We are faced today with any number of situations that are at first glance incomprehensible, that are so far outside our experience and prior knowledge that they are, in a word, unthinkable. For example: A recent study examined … Continue reading
Just two years ago, the high-tech world held a coronation for the Next Big Thing — virtual reality. People in the near future, one billion of them in just a few years, said Jeff Zuckerberg of Facebook, would be spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to buy clunky, helmet-mounted … Continue reading →
It’s not just Florida that is being submerged by rising water due to climate change — the entire property-insurance industry in the Gulf Coast states is going under too. Because hurricanes have for years been increasing in number and power, damage claims are overwhelming insurance companies. More than a dozen … Continue reading →
The Trump cult is doing for today’s America what the orchestra did for the passengers on the Titanic during its final hours: providing a distraction for people who are in extreme peril. They strut across the political stage, juggling shiny objects — abortion bans, book bans, drag-queen bans, gun-law bans, … Continue reading
Today’s Republican Party is practicing the politics of extinction, pursuing activities and policies that will lead to its destruction — unless and until the decent but cowardly majority members of the party rise up against the minority of evil and stupid people who have declared themselves to be its leaders. … Continue reading →
The dramatic rise in young adult cancer rates are the latest warning Guest Post by Nate Bear/Do Not Panic! The mass media has been so firmly captured by the progress narrative it can be difficult to find out the true state of our civilisation. We’re all living longer and getting … Continue reading →
For some time now, serious researchers have been looking into the realities of how much disinformation is on the Internet, how effectively it is spread, and what its effects are on politics, events and people. A major addition to this growing body of work has just been made by a … Continue reading →
On Tuesday, the leader of the free world will mount the dais in the U.S. House of Representatives to describe the state of the Union. He will speak of a country recovering from a pandemic, an economy roaring back from near-recession, and he will assure us all that it will … Continue reading →
One of the reasons our society is on its last shaky legs might be that when our children are very young, we start lying to them. All of us do. First we fill their little brains with nonsense about Santa Claus, the fat little dude in a red suit who, … Continue reading →
Just about every large organization in this country, from retail companies to medical practices, has constructed an elaborate automated procedure that they call customer service. It is misnamed. Almost without exception, “customer service” is in reality corporate service, designed to enhance the convenience of the business, not the customer, and … Continue reading →
I have developed a unified field theory that explains everything that is rancid in the industrial world. Excess wealth, I propose, is the ultimate source of the steady crapification of our political, economic, social and private lives. Modern sovereign states have adopted MMT — Modern Monetary Theory — which tells … Continue reading →
On Christmas Eve, the operator of the Eastern US power grid, one of the three grids in the country, declared a system-wide emergency as a savage winter storm brought high winds and sub-zero temperatures to much of the country. Demand for electricity, especially for heat, was threatening to overwhelm the … Continue reading →
She wailed the question to a passing TV helicopter as she struggled down a street in New Orleans, chest-deep in the filthy floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. The memory has stuck to my conscience like a burr to a saddle blanket for all these seventeen years, not only because of the … Continue reading →
COP27 — the United Nations’ celebration of the 27th consecutive successful year in the war on climate change — is wrapping up its second successful week. Some one hundred heads of state and 45,000 delegates from 200 countries flocked (in, among other conveyances, 400 private jet aircraft) to the largest … Continue reading →
A funny thing happened while we were watching the bright shiny objects being juggled for our entertainment by the contestants in the bewitching midterm elections: the U.S. oil industry went code blue. Okay, maybe that’s overdramatizing a bit, but the emerging reality is a serious threat to our well-being. It … Continue reading →
Progressives are comfortable — and comforted by — ridiculing the delusions of the far right in America, from the Big Lie about the 2020 election to the various conspiracy theories incubated by Q Anon and Fox News. But these are only the latest delusions to take root in the public … Continue reading →
Progressives are comfortable — and comforted by — ridiculing the delusions of the far right in America, from the Big Lie about the 2020 election to the various conspiracy theories incubated by Q Anon and Fox News. But these are only the latest delusions to take root in the public … Continue reading →
Florida and Hurricane Ian offer yet another example of the truism that profound misunderstanding of how things work, a.k.a. ignorance, can be deadly. The same people who often complain after a hurricane that the forecasters hyped the danger while nothing much bad happened are now caterwauling that the forecasters and … Continue reading →
The brutal advance of global climate change is beginning to pop the seams of civilization in myriad places. The cumulative effects of supercharged storms, failing agriculture, rising seas, vicious heatwaves and rampant wildfires have gone beyond the destruction of individual lives and small communities, and have begun to apply unbearable … Continue reading →
The brutal advance of global climate change is beginning to pop the seams of civilization in myriad places. The cumulative effects of supercharged storms, failing agriculture, rising seas, vicious heatwaves and rampant wildfires have gone beyond the destruction of individual lives and small communities, and have begun to apply unbearable … Continue reading →
The brutal advance of global climate change is beginning to pop the seams of civilization in myriad places. The cumulative effects of supercharged storms, failing agriculture, rising seas, vicious heatwaves and rampant wildfires have gone beyond the destruction of individual lives and small communities, and have begun to apply unbearable … Continue reading →
I couldn’t have said it better, so I won’t try. The following is from the official UN summary of his remarks: “A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding. Our planet is burning. People are hurting… We have a duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked … Continue reading →
I couldn’t have said it better, so I won’t try. The following is from the official UN summary of his remarks: “A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding. Our planet is burning. People are hurting… We have a duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked … Continue reading →
Just about the entire population of this country, and those of many others, are sleep-walking toward their own destruction without objection and without any particular effort to avoid it. Sleepily, these folks will agree if asked that something should probably be done, but when that something means that they will … Continue reading →
Just about the entire population of this country, and those of many others, are sleep-walking toward their own destruction without objection and without any particular effort to avoid it. Sleepily, these folks will agree if asked that something should probably be done, but when that something means that they will … Continue reading →
As a citizen of a republic, I find the mere idea of a monarchy to be repugnant. Not so long ago in this country, living as subjects of an idiot with absolute power over our lives became unacceptable, and we fought a bloody revolution to free ourselves of it. So … Continue reading →
As a citizen of a republic, I find the mere idea of a monarchy to be repugnant. Not so long ago in this country, living as subjects of an idiot with absolute power over our lives became unacceptable, and we fought a bloody revolution to free ourselves of it. So … Continue reading →
It is said that to immobilize a centipede, all you have to do is ask; “What foot do you lead with?” I don’t know if that works, but I do know that all you have to do to bring just about any kind of human activity to a halt is … Continue reading →
It is said that to immobilize a centipede, all you have to do is ask; “What foot do you lead with?” I don’t know if that works, but I do know that all you have to do to bring just about any kind of human activity to a halt is … Continue reading →
It is said that to immobilize a centipede, all you have to do is ask; “What foot do you lead with?” I don’t know if that works, but I do know that all you have to do to bring just about any kind of human activity to a halt is … Continue reading →
It is extremely uncomfortable being a citizen of an empire that is circling the drain of history. Like passengers on a doomed airplane, we can watch the onboard movie with all the concentration we can muster, we can pull the shade on the window and deploy earbuds all we want, … Continue reading →
It is extremely uncomfortable being a citizen of an empire that is circling the drain of history. Like passengers on a doomed airplane, we can watch the onboard movie with all the concentration we can muster, we can pull the shade on the window and deploy earbuds all we want, … Continue reading →
There has been a profound change lately in the nature of my conversations with younger people. (These days, 99.9% of the people I talk with are younger, but never mind.) Admittedly I don’t talk to many people at all, so this is hardly a valid sample. Still, I am struck … Continue reading →
You see? We can get things done in Washington! This Congress can pass legislation that the people want! We just did it! We gave Medicare permission for the first time ever to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies! This will save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars! Not to be … Continue reading →
You see? We can get things done in Washington! This Congress can pass legislation that the people want! We just did it! We gave Medicare permission for the first time ever to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies! This will save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars! Not to be … Continue reading →
I have admired Joe Biden during his entire career in public service. He became a legend in Washington after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972 — a few weeks after his election to the U.S. Senate — and for nearly four decades thereafter, at … Continue reading →
I have admired Joe Biden during his entire career in public service. He became a legend in Washington after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972 — a few weeks after his election to the U.S. Senate — and for nearly four decades thereafter, at … Continue reading →
Of all the mathematical concepts humanity has invented to help deal with reality — such as zero, infinity, numbers, etc. — surely the least useful and most toxic is the notion of “average.” Like empty calories — food that has no nutrition — the idea of an average something is … Continue reading →
Of all the mathematical concepts humanity has invented to help deal with reality — such as zero, infinity, numbers, etc. — surely the least useful and most toxic is the notion of “average.” Like empty calories — food that has no nutrition — the idea of an average something is … Continue reading →
“And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.” From the Bible, Judges, verse 45. There are other examples of ancient armies sowing the fields of their defeated enemies with salt, … Continue reading →
“And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.” From the Bible, Judges, verse 45. There are other examples of ancient armies sowing the fields of their defeated enemies with salt, … Continue reading →
Senator Joe Manchin has graciously allowed the federal government to send several gallons of water to fight the wildfires raging in 15 or so states: some empty pails to Florida to bail out the sea water that threatens to overwash the state; a couple of kayaks to ride out hurricanes … Continue reading →
The biggest, loudest, most expensive scam ever perpetrated on the American people is underway right now and people seem not to recognize that it is, in fact, a scam. This despite the fact that they are being hammered with advertising promoting it 24/7. The TV ads feature broken down football … Continue reading →
The biggest, loudest, most expensive scam ever perpetrated on the American people is underway right now and people seem not to recognize that it is, in fact, a scam. This despite the fact that they are being hammered with advertising promoting it 24/7. The TV ads feature broken down football … Continue reading →
The biggest, loudest, most expensive scam ever perpetrated on the American people is underway right now and people seem not to recognize that it is, in fact, a scam. This despite the fact that they are being hammered with advertising promoting it 24/7. The TV ads feature broken down football … Continue reading →
Just past half-time in the great game of 2022, the 50th consecutive successful year of the War on Climate Change. And as in every one of those other years, we have racked up many achievements so far this year — so many that we thought it best to review them … Continue reading →
Just past half-time in the great game of 2022, the 50th consecutive successful year of the War on Climate Change. And as in every one of those other years, we have racked up many achievements so far this year — so many that we thought it best to review them … Continue reading →
Just past half-time in the great game of 2022, the 50th consecutive successful year of the War on Climate Change. And as in every one of those other years, we have racked up many achievements so far this year — so many that we thought it best to review them … Continue reading →
We made “smart” thermostats too smart: they’ve hatched a plot to take down the electric grid. (BTW: whenever you see the word “smart” attached to an inanimate thing, know that something really stupid is going on.) Smart thermostats contain a timer that, during the heating season, lowers the temperature of … Continue reading →
A Republican candidate to represent Georgia in the United States Senate, Herschel Walker, had this analysis of global climate change this week: “Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got … Continue reading →
There is another Big Lie circulating in the country — other than the one about somebody “stealing” the 2020 presidential election — that is just as corrosive to American politics. And this one comes not from the Trumpian right, but from everybody else. Bill Maher gave it voice the other … Continue reading →
I never thought I would be even tempted to defend the oil industry, and that’s not exactly what I intend to do here, but their situation, and the situation in which they have put us, need a little explaining. There are two major narratives about the oil business currently, spurred … Continue reading →
The drumbeat began with the rattling of a snare drum or two; now the tympani are being bludgeoned with sledge hammers. As a Washington Post headline puts it today: “A summer of blackouts? Wheezing power grid leaves states at risk.” The article — one of many like it appearing in … Continue reading →
If you want to excel at football you have to be able to run fast; to play hockey well, you have to be really good at skating; in baseball, you have to be able either to catch the ball, or hit it. To survive in politics today you must learn … Continue reading →
Of all the subjects I have tackled in the 12 years or so I have been writing in this space, none has given me greater pain than recycling. I have many friends and family members who are passionate about recycling, and proud of their recycling creds. For me to write, … Continue reading →
During the final three decades of the 20th Century, the world experienced at most 100 major disasters — both natural and industrial — every year, with annual damages averaging $70 billion. During the most recent two decades, the world has been afflicted with up to 500 major disasters every year. … Continue reading →
Like tiny rivulets of meltwater trickling off March snowbanks, small but growing narratives are beginning to flow against the tides of the opinions that have dominated the talking heads and writing hands for many months. Contrarians are popping up in more and more places to say, wait a minute! Stop … Continue reading →
It is widely accepted now that there are two kinds of news in circulation in the world: relatively accurate news, and fake news. A number of cable channels and Internet sites have chosen sides, and put out either all real or all fake news. The “real” news outlets — The … Continue reading →
Every talking head in the MSM universe and on social media is fulminating about rising gas prices and falling petroleum supplies. Everyone has a favorite cause to invoke and a favorite person to blame. Everyone has a solution: ramp up American production, cut a deal with Argentina, ramp up OPEC … Continue reading →
One way to better comprehend the current state of the oil business, and gas prices, is to look more closely at the situation of an Uber driver. (Our example is imaginary, and the numbers are made up, but I think realistic.) As he begins his employment, our Uber driver is … Continue reading →
It is exceedingly strange how the notion persists — among, for example, the Russian geniuses who planned the Ukranian invasion — that bombardment breaks the will of the people bombed, when almost every chapter of human history contradicts it. For example, during eight years studying and writing about the American … Continue reading →
The raging inflation that is grinding this country down is not monetary, it is rage inflation. Everybody, it seems, is outraged by everybody else; foaming at the mouth over tweets, texts, posts, remarks, books, 40-year-old high school yearbook pictures, items of clothing, wearing or not wearing masks, getting or not … Continue reading →
It may well be the best-governed country in the world. It has won worldwide acclaim for handling the COVID pandemic better than any other country with the exception of the United Arab Emirates. It is doing more for its people and its infrastructure to prepare for the ravages of climate … Continue reading →
It’s been another great year in the war on climate change. With a combination of forceful inaction, concentrated inattention, strenuous ignorance of facts, strategic amnesia and just plain orneriness we have once again succeeded in not losing to this implacable enemy which, in our humble opinion, does not really exist. … Continue reading →
My name is Chingachgook. I am an editor. I am the last of my people. Once we were as numerous as the buffalo. We roamed the corridors of every communications company, preventing people who could not spell, or punctuate, or speak the language, or who simply did not know anything, … Continue reading →
Most of us who grew up in homes with a mother and father in residence remember our childhoods as times of absolute safety. If the slightest thing went awry, Mom or Dad would fix it immediately. In our adult lives, facing existential threats (whether real or imagined, still threats) on … Continue reading →
Slowly, sleepily, eyes blinking in the unaccustomed light, the mainstream media are awakening to the single most important fact of human life in 2021: the long-expected, long-predicted, long emergency whose name no right-wing politician must ever utter — global climate change — is no longer predicted, no longer expected, no … Continue reading →
We don’t organize large rallies to protest hurricanes. No one advocates, and no government funds, attempts to eradicate hurricanes, despite their destructive and deadly nature. (Occasionally some idiot will propose dropping a nuclear bomb on one, but no one that dumb could ever get elected president. Oh, wait…) No one … Continue reading →
World leaders have given themselves over to the practice of APPEARING to do something about a problem rather than DOING something. They have done so with such enthusiasm, and for so long now, that they no longer seem to be aware that they are doing it. The reasons are obvious: … Continue reading →
Our relentless drive for Herd Stupidity — the state in which so many of us are so stupid that there’s nothing more we can manage to do together than run off a cliff — is being assisted and accelerated by the homogenization of politics. Every election contest in America right … Continue reading →
Remember the 1990s, when all the smart (i.e. rich) people in the room believed that Japan was eating our lunch and would soon bestride the world? (The movie Rising Sun, which came out in 1993, summed it all up.) The Japanese were buying American real estate, American companies and American … Continue reading →
Elon Musk made $36 billion in one day this week. (Monday, October 25, 2021). Well, he didn’t really make it, he sort of won it — the New York Stock Casino bestowed it upon him after learning that Hertz, the rental-car company, had placed an order for 100,000 Teslas, the … Continue reading →