Remember Jackie Kennedy? Took the world by storm. Media couldn’t praise her beauty enough. Time, Life, McCall’s, People, Look, Cosmopolitan, Match (French), and other magazines featured her on their covers. After she became Mrs. Onassis, however, there was a bit of a change, a falloff as the media focused more on her as one of the wealthy elites and not as a beauty or fashion model. Remember Michelle Obama? On the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal, Ebony, Time, Essence, Glamour, Prevention, Vogue, Cooking Light, Rachel Ray’s every day, Variety, InStyle, More, and probably many more magazines in a list so long it’s…just too long. Couldn’t find a magazine whose cover she didn’t grace. And Jill Biden? Also a darling of the fashion world: Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, probably others I didn’t see. Anyone ever hear of Melania Trump? Well, maybe before her husband ran for president. Yeah, come to think of it, she did grace some covers then, but…


As Clair Atkinson writes for NBC, “There’s a clear reluctance among editors to put themselves in the cross-hairs of the culture wars. Mostly New York-based editors may fear having to face unhappy readers or advertisers if they go with a choice so closely tied to President Donald Trump.” *


“Wasn’t she some kind of model or somepin? Yeah, I thinked she was? Then what’d I know ‘bout beauty and style and stuff. Never been to a fashion show, buy my jeans at Walmart, have worn the same jackets for years, think I own—wait—yes I do own some ties cause I just checked the back of the closet….”


What’s the Truth about Beauty?


Call it “The year Beauty Died.” So, it seems that Melania Trump was beautiful and stylish enough to grace magazine covers before the 2016 election, but not afterwards. Apparently, beauty isn’t skin deep; it’s ideologically deep. Thus, whereas thin (svelte?) models were once the “ideal,” now thin-challenged models (Corpulent? Chubby? Hefty? Fat?) are equally ideal, and ideologically appropriate models are even “more” ideal.


There’s Melanie Trump at the inauguration, in my eyes looking rather elegant and sophisticated, the broad-brimmed hat hiding some of her face. Didn’t Kate Middleton wear a similar hat—without derision and criticism—at some ceremony? And how does the media see her? If they didn’t want her on their magazine covers the first time she was First Lady, what are the chances she will grace any covers this time?


Poor Kim Kardashian, she lost followers—supposedly more than 100,000— because she posted a picture of Melania Trump in that inauguration outfit. Yep, beauty really is only as ideology says it is. But I wonder…


Hypothetically, let’s make the Slovenian poly-lingual lady an “ordinary citizen.” Put her in chic nightclub attire, and send her into a club alone. Think she would attract any attention from both guys and gals (sorry for the “only two sexes” reference)? I think she would.


So, What Is Beauty? Or, Rather, Who Is “Beautiful”?


Take overriding political propaganda out of the consideration. Melania Trump was a model for a reason, and I’m guessing that reason was…beauty carried well, even better than well. Stately, even, evidenced by her status with media before 2016. Have standards of beauty changed so radically in less than a decade?


We should admit that the idea of beauty does change as does the idea of who is beautiful. There are cultural and ethnic preferences. I assume Geishas look the way they do because that look defines a standard of beauty. And I also assume that every ethnicity has a “standard” for beauty, a standard that rises to the level of “ideal.” If that assumption is true, then from Australian Aborigines to Okinawa islanders, to Inuits, the sense that some people are more beautiful than others is a universal. The parameters of such beauty might differ, but the underlying truth of an ideal prevails as a universal concept.


So, what are the parameters for beauty in the West during the twenty-first century? And have they changed in the past decade?


The model for Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1536) had a bit of a tummy that would not get her on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue of 2015, but would have gotten on the cover in 2016.  The model for Venus in Front of the Mirror (1614-1615) by Peter Paul Rubens would also have been excluded because of her “spare tire.” But things changed in 2016 as Sports illustrated featured Ashley Graham, a plus-sized model—who had no “spare tire,” by the way. Obviously, the sense of who is a beautiful woman has changed, even more so in that trans women have now participated in beauty contests and won (Kataluna Enriquez, Miss Nevada, and Bailey Anne Kennedy, Miss Maryland). My goodness, one doesn’t  even have to be a Missto be Miss America anymore, as the selection of Mrs. Bailey Anne Kennedy, wife of a Marine, reveals.


Now those are some changes in the idea of beauty that no one in the centuries prior to our own would probably understand. Would Titian paint a man-Venus? Would he have considered painting such a model? We can’t know, of course, but we can surmise that he wouldn’t comprehend what political correctness and ideology have done to our brains’ basic understanding of beauty. Nor would he understand the needs to conform in a socially engineered art world.


Liberalism Destroyed


Let’s go back to classical liberalism and the idea of unrestricted freedom to think as one prefers. Liberalism manifested in political correctness and ideology now entails restrictions and forced or mandated ideals supported by seemingly endless propaganda. You have to accept a trans woman as a beauty; you have to accept a plus-sized woman as a bikini model; you have to accept… NO! Wait! You can’t accept Melania Trump’s beauty even though you formerly praised her beauty.


And just as liberals could not see Kamala Harris as a bumbling, inarticulate person, so they seem unable to see any conservative woman as beautiful. It’s truly a shame how supposedly liberal ideology has become restrictive. John Locke would be disappointed by the conversion of his ideas into their opposites. All avant-garde artists of the past are probably turning over in their paint boxes, er… graves.






*”Model, first lady: Melania Trump conspicuously absent from magazine covers.” NBC Online.

The Epiphany is celebrated on January 6, but there were two reenactments of a sort in late January, 2025 when Hamas released some of its female hostages. In a “ceremony” Hamas handed each a gift bag. Each bag contained a certificate of release, a necklace, and photos of the hostages when they were in captivity. * A gift bag! Did the leaders of Hamas take their cue from Hollywood?


Now, That’s What I call a Gift Bag!


Almost reminds one of those lavish parties at the Grammys, the Oscars, and the Golden Globes in Hollywood when the entertainment elite receive bags called “Everyone Wins Bags.” Here’s a list of gifts in those bags for the glitterati:


    The 2024 nominee gift bonanza features the full line of Miage ultra-luxury transformative skincare products, an all-inclusive luxurious Swiss getaway from Chalet Zermatt Peak, a seven-day holistic wellness retreat from the Golden Door, a three-night stay in a breathtaking private villa from Saint-Barth Paradise, THOR Kitchen luxury kitchen appliances and 10,000 donated meals from v-dog in support of PETA's Global Compassion Fund. Lucky nominees will also receive1MD Nutrition's LiverMD supplement, Adonis Arcana men's grooming and skincare, ultra-premium Antigua Cruz Añejo Cristalino Tequila, AURO WELLNESS Glutaryl topical glutathione, BAGCEIT portable purse seat, BlendQuik Personal Portable Blender, Blush Silks beauty pillowcases, Bored Rebel graphic undershirts, C60 Power Sugar Free Tart Cherry Gummies, a private show with mentalist to the stars Dr. Carl Christman, cate brown sustainable upcycled designer pillows, Potenza RF microneedling by Cynosure, DANUCERA award-winning Cerabalm and D22 Tonic, dooplikit full-color 3D selfie figurine, EATABLE premium gourmet popcorn, ELBOQUE sustainable artisan handbags and backpacks, élevé adaptogen-infused sparkling water, EpicLight Beauty Radiant Duo blush + lip balm, Fetcha Chocolates handmade luxury vegan chocolate,  Gin Bothy award-winning small-batch Scottish gin, Goodal Vitamin C serum + eye gel patch, Helight red light sleep therapy device, HEYDUDE comfortable + versatile footwear, Hotsy Totsy Haus Deafinitely Divine Glow Kit, INSTYTUTUM result-driven skincare, Isopure Collagen Peptides drink mix, Jambys "performance inactivewear" gift set, Karma Nuts bite-sized gluten-free Cashew Cookies, Sound Bath with Kate Schofield & The Earth's Hum Tuning Fork, Kenra Platinum Blow-Dry Spray, Maison Construction complimentary home project management, Meet the Playground Kids children's book of kindness and empathy, Memorable Movie Performances by J.B. Gould,  Overnight Travel Bags stylish travel duffle, poppi reimagined soda, Posh Pretzels handcrafted chocolate covered pretzels, Rose Box NYC luxury long lasting roses, Rubik's Cube 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition,  Safe  ̶ a memoir by Mark Daley, the Sagar Luxury Sugar Experience, Sattaché luxury shoe bag, Schwank Grills Portable Infrared Grill, Serucell restorative Recovery Serum, Shinery Radiance Wash and Brush Duo, Smack Pet Food raw dehydrated super food for cats, Glow by Dr. Stacie Stephenson, There's Something in the Water from STEM4Real, Wallis Annenberg GenSpace gratitude postcards fostering intergenerational connectedness, Wesper's in-home Clinical Sleep Consultation, mouth-watering black licorice from Windy City Sweets and "You Talkin' to Me?" from Workman Publishing/Hachette Book Group.

I’m a bit underwhelmed by Hamas’s gifts—especially the dime-store necklace. I think they should have included some gifts that the Hollywood people get, such as an all-inclusive luxurious Swiss getaway from Chalet Zermatt Peak, a seven-day holistic wellness retreat from the Golden Door, and a three-night stay in a breathtaking private villa from Saint-Barth Paradise. But no, Hamas couldn’t even think to give gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This gift-giving was not like that of the Magi. It was some pitiful attempt at propaganda. And, who knows? It will probably work on those college protestors and others who openly supported Hamas. “See, they’re nice people who are oppressed by Israel.”

Where’s Al Sharpton when you need him to negotiate for equity? The hostages endured imprisonment—and sometimes rape and torture—for more than 400 days. In Al’s and other liberals’ world, everything should be even, right? Upgrade the gift bags, Hamas.

Epiphany’s Other Meaning

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce’s character Stephen Daedalus undergoes a series of epiphanies, that is, revelations that come to the brain as “gifts” of awareness. Other authors have used the same theme of reaching a mental discovery as an epiphany. And you have probably also had your share of epiphanies, those moments when insight suddenly appears at your door like the Magi bearing gifts.

​Will the Hamas supporters ever receive the gift of realization? Probably not. Many rational people have tried to give them the gift of understanding that there is no equivocation between defending oneself from unprovoked attacks and attacking the innocent without provocation. There is no equity of outcome, also.

A Lesson for All of Us

Unlike the Biblical epiphany in which the Magi gave tangible gifts to the baby, all mental epiphanies come from within and appear to be sourceless, very much like remembering someone’s name after not seeing the person for years. You meet on the street, exchange pleasantries without saying the name, walk away, and then the brain seeming like an independent entity pops that name into your consciousness. “John! That was John! Shoot! Why didn’t I think of that at the time?” So wisdom and understanding seem at times to pop into our heads. Insight and inspiration work that way. They are gifts from nowhere—and everywhere. They are also like the Cosmic Background Radiation in having no point source but emanating from our entire universe.

Will Hamas’s supporters and anti-semites receive the gift? Maybe the best way to ensure that is to put them on that stage getting that bag after 400 days of captivity. Maybe that background experience will radiate their brains with understanding. “Oh! I see what you mean.”

*https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/hamas-handed-gift-bags-to-3-released-hostages-israeli-authorities-seize-materials-here-s-what-was-inside/ar-AA1xwTLX?ocid=BingNewsSerp

This is one of those “I wish I had put my thoughts on paper earlier” blogs. Miranda Devine, I discovered this morning, used the pawn/chess analog before I penned this. So, I’ll make a couple of comments and let you read Devine’s NY Post editorial.


Introit


Bishops usually command respect because they supposedly have devoted their lives to the care of a cadre of shepherds and their flocks of faithful. They are, in fact, human, as this century’s scandals and controversies in both the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches bear witness. Being human often entails having flawed judgment. Having flawed judgment often derives from having insufficient knowledge. And having insufficient knowledge often emanates from a naive parochialism that, in turn, derives from a mind closed to alternate thinking.


NY Post’s Miranda Devine wrote an insightful piece on the latest bishop controversy, the woke lecture of Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde seen on national TV. Budde, in case you missed it, played the useful idiot-pawn to the religion of Wokism by explaining how alphabet people, migrants, and “transgender” children will suffer under Trump. In a demeaning reference to the skill level of migrants, her Excellency basically relegated the migrants to picking crops and washing dishes. Her reference to children was equally “woke” and stereotypical. As Devine points out, the “good “ bishop seemed to have little concern about the victims of illegal aliens or about children receiving life-altering operations and drugs before they have the maturity to decide and the knowledge to understand potential psychological and physical problems that accompany irreversible changes. *


The Budde lecture takes me back to a few blogs ago when I wrote about the Peter Principle (1/10/25). She might have been a devout, even holy, pastor, but she has been elevated beyond her competence and vocation. Instead of praying for peace, unity, and a one-nation-under-God society, the cleric chose to publicly condemn on the basis of a stereotype of the President, whose gay Treasury Secretary-nominee Scott Bessent, took offense at her remarks (see Devine’s editorial) and refuted them. Contrary to her intention and belief, the bishop wasn’t speaking truth to power. She was ignoring truths incarnate in the many victims of the past four years.


TDS Alive and Well


And, of course, the folks on The View and at CNN rushed to give her an audience, indicating to me that TDS is still a plague on American society. The media’s pawns of the Left’s hate-breeding stereotypes will continue along their narrow path through the next four years. They will ignore all that contradicts their narrative and nit-pick any slip-up by a Trump appointee. They will fawn over anyone who supports their views and condemn anyone who doesn’t.


The best defense against the cacophony of hate is ignoring it while focusing on positive steps that put America on track to accomplish Trump’s threefold goal: a stronger, safer, more prosperous America—for All.    




*https://nypost.com/2025/01/22/opinion/miranda-devine-egomaniacal-bishop-buddes-woke-rant-just-makes-her-another-liberal-pawn-aiming-to-cut-down-trump/

The desire to spend money on nothing appears to be built into the liberal brain. Take the budget proposal of Gov. Hochul of New York as an example. She has $13.5 million earmarked to ban cellphones in schools.


I could achieve her goal for less. Pay me $1 million, and I’ll save the state $12.5 million.


How the Conte plan might work.


1.    Tell kids, parents and guardians that phones are banned during school hours under penalty of after-school detention for student violators.


2.    There is no #2.


Make check payable to Donald J. Conte.

According to the new Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the President will charge all members of his cabinet with a threefold purpose: To make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous.


Succinct. Bottom-line stuff. Typical of a successful businessman who wants to get things done—yesterday. My late friend Joe Hardy, successful entrepreneur and founder of, among other entities, 84 Lumber, was driven similarly to achieve practical goals efficiently. No platitudes. No beating around the bush. Clear and measured. Clear and measurable goals, as all three of Trump’s goals can be quantified. For Trump, who knew Joe, the thinking seems to be the same: “Give me something I can count, not some utopian and amorphous set of touchy-feely mandates that drove the last administration bent on equity and diversity at the expense of equal opportunity and  merit.” Sure, Trump’s goals are utilitarian, but what logical argument can be made against them in a world filled with self-proclaimed enemies of America?


But the Leftist Media Thinks Differently


Apparently, the talking heads on the liberal networks have a problem with such specificity. They prefer the Biden-Harris feckless foreign policy, ambiguous goals, and DEI policies to hard truths. And in ranting about Nazis and Fascists, they fail to ask themselves, “Are we against American strength, safety, and prosperity?”


The Left seeks refuge in scapegoating when it can’t bully or when it fears its truths are exposed as false gods. You can see such scapegoating in action as liberals blame climate change for the fires in Los Angeles and not insufficient plans, cluttered forest floors, an empty reservoir, and an absentee mayor and incompetent governor who is more concerned about a liberal agenda and Trump-proofing than the people of his state.


Stronger, safer, more prosperous. Works for me. How about you?

In his last day in office, Joe Biden strangely pardoned people who have not been convicted of crimes. Does his pardoning imply that they did something worth a presidential pardon? Are they bad guys like his tax-evading, lying-on-a-federal-form, recipient of China-Ukrainian-Russian bribery-scheming son? Are they murderers?


No? What then? For what has Biden issued a pardon?


Does he believe that Fauci, Chaney, assorted Congressional Committee members, Capitol Hill officers, and General Milley have done something illegal that is provable in court?


Although I believe that Fauci, as head of NIH, committed no crime, I also think he was guilty of bad judgment born of his $400,000 salary, long tenure, fawning media, and connections to foreign research, I do not believe he committed a provable crime. Celebrated by the liberal media, publishers, and Democrat elected officials, Fauci is an ostensible example of hubris raised to the Nth power. “Mr. Science” told us masks were unessential, one mask was essential, and then two masks were prudent. He had apparently been at least peripherally complicit in joint gain-of-function research conducted in China. His guidance misled teachers who believed they were in dire jeopardy. His positions fostered the panic among organizations like the NCAA and professional sports leagues. His advice fostered the push in the military to expel long-serving soldiers with war experience if they rejected the vaccine. He pushed for a liberal use of vaccines that state governments and educational institutions then advocated as prophylactics for the young  even when little kids were not demonstrably at risk and he backed the banning of medicines that might have diminished risk to the infected—think Ivermectin, D3, and zinc.  But was he guilty of a provable  crime? Was there a need for a preemptive pardon?


And Milley? Under Biden he was the consummate martinet with regard to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He supposedly disagreed with his Commander, but did so weakly as I see it. Criminal? Treasonous? Instead, maybe at fault for not voicing vociferously his concerns that a complete withdrawal of troops under Biden’s misreading of the Taliban and the Trump agreement and therefore, also at fault for not arguing for removing billions of dollars of military equipment from Afghanistan. In need of a pardon? Where’s the record of the Courts Martial? Where’s the conviction and sentencing to pardon? What does the pardon do? It makes me and others wonder if Biden knows something about Milley that puts him in a category with Hunter.

Is There a Lesson Here?

I am not convinced by the Left’s rhetoric during and following the 2024 election of an impending Naziism. I am not convinced that the Trump DOJ will violate citizens’ rights as the Biden DOJ obviously did. The Left continues to voice its concerns about retribution most likely because it knows what it did over the past eight or nine years. In doing so, many liberals have demonstrated their penchant for psychological projection and hypocrisy. And that projection presents us with a lesson: Do not assume either intentions or actions that characterize your life also characterize others' lives.

A second lesson: There's no fear of "what goes around, comes around" if there was no initial going around. A ball has to be thrown if it is going to bounce off a wall.

Joe's Legacy

Isn’t the presumption of innocence the most fundamental philosophy underlying American justice? I’ll assume the pardoned people are innocent, but I will suspect that they might have done something that requires pardoning. Thanks, Joe, for assuming that the DOJ will continue the policies it had under your administration. You seem to have given more weight to the belief of conservatives that your administration was, in fact, the true manifestation of Fascism, Naziism, and Third World politics.

Although I am no fan of Joe Biden, I can acknowledge that in his writing some executive orders, he was “well-intentioned,” if wholly misled. I believe that “the old man,” who is my age, just doesn’t realize all the implications of orders whose “unintended” or “unforeseen” consequences are especially exemplified in Executive Order 14124, Biden’s 140th order out of (to this last week of his presidency) 143 such executive actions.


The order, in short, is centered on “Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI).” Sounds noble; sounds like the right thing to promulgate in a nation with a large Hispanic population, but…


The Monster in the Room


There’s that “equity” monster in the order. Although it could be interpreted by bureaucrats to mean that proportional funding should go to Hispanic educational institutions, it’s more likely to mean that Hispanic educational institutions—regardless of effectiveness— will receive funding while other institutions will either lose funding or undergo cuts in funding. Also, HSI graduates might (“most likely will”) receive special advantages in applying for federal jobs. I believe the order opens the door to a new kind of affirmative action that forces advantages and disadvantages on groups, the latter on nonHispanics.


Why? Well, the order lists goals, one of which is: “strengthening Federal recruitment activities at HSIs to build accessible and equitable pathways into Federal career opportunities for HSI students, faculty, staff, and alumni” (2, b, vi). * If you know bureaucracies and bureaucrats as I do, you’ll surmise that this goal will frame recruitment in terms of “equity,” and not merit; thus, someone less qualified than another will get the job on the basis of an HSI education—in Bidenesque, “If you ain’t Hispanic….”


Pessimistic assessment? Racist reaction? Not really. It’s more historically-based truth. I certainly want Hispanics to serve as government agents—as long as they aren’t incompetent—especially bilingual Hispanics who fill a gap made by NonHispanic government agents whose only Spanish consists of saying some line from a travel guide or high school text, such as “Where is the train station?” (¿Dónde está la estación del tren?). In contrast to monolingual agents, bilingual individuals can enhance the functions of government agencies by serving the large population of recent and older legal Hispanic migrants; thus, providing  opportunities for quality education in HSIs is prudent. But…


Executive orders can often have unintended consequences when they are based on special interest group pressures; thus Biden’s desire to allow biological men to participate in women’s sports and use women’s locker room and restroom facilities (but then, this isn’t surprising if his daughter’s claim about his showering with her is true). If complex, multi-page laws have unintended consequences, surely executive orders also lead to them.


And once a federal agency implements such an order, those unforeseen consequences become virtual law, often with penalties imposed not by Congress, but by bureaucrats. In the last half century, Americans have experienced increasing regulation by bureaucrats run wild on both laws and executive orders. The US EPA, for example, houses regulators overreaching the original intent of laws. An agency that began in good intentions has become highly restrictive, governing by increasing regulations on…just about everything.


The Stock Pond Incident


Case in point: “Andrew Johnson, a welder who owned a small group of cattle and horses near Fort Bridger, Wyoming, saw his case draw national attention when EPA alleged violations of the law were committed when he built a stock pond although stock ponds are exempt from the Clean Water Act.”** The Johnson family faced more than $20 million in fines for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act when they built the pond.


$20 million! “No joke, as Biden often says.” “NO JOKE,” as Kamala Harris often repeats repetitively again, once more, over and over. $20 Million. But it was no joke to the Johnson family. “Johnson faced fines as high as $37,500 a day for building a stock pond on his 8-acre tract in 2012. He constructed the pond after obtaining all of the necessary permits from the state of Wyoming. EPA ordered Johnson to remove the pond. Johnson countered by asking a federal court in Wyoming to nullify the order.” Fortunately, the Johnson family won their case though they had to install a fence and plant some trees.


I suggest that the Johnson affair is an example of what could happen because of bureaucratic overreach of anonymous individuals with either an agenda or a misguided interpretation of a law or executive order,  and the word “equity” provides such an agent with an agenda to wreak havoc on institutions and individuals. Abuses occur because of powers imbued in agents. The most recent example occurred during FEMA’s involvement in Hurricane Milton recovery. As CNN reported, “A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee has been fired after they advised their disaster relief team to avoid homes with signs supporting former President Donald Trump while canvassing in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the agency’s administrator said Saturday.”***


Do I know for certain that Biden’s equity order for HSIs will lead to abuse and inequity? No, but personal experience with government bureaucracies through years of government research projects, through witnessing government or institution imposed quotas, and through incidents like the Johnson family’s stock pond, make me pessimistic. The probability of abuse isn’t zero.


Reversing Course


I surmise that Trump will reverse some of Biden’s Leftist executive orders. But herein lies a cautionary tale: Careful wording is essential in every such order, and limitations on its implementation should be part of the order to prevent wayward bureaucrats from overreaching their authority—or responsibility.


*https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/07/22/2024-16225/white-house-initiative-on-advancing-educational-equity-excellence-and-economic-opportunity-through ; Section 2, b, vi


**Northern AG Network. https://www.northernag.net/settlement-reached-in-epa-dispute-over-wyoming-stock-pond/


***https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/politics/fema-employee-trump-florida-hurricane/index.html

In recent years I have criticized the Conference of the Parties' unending cycle of annual meetings on “climate change.” And as I have written, part of the motivation for the continuing series of gatherings in exotic and expensive venues lies in the freebee vacations for scientists on many governments' (thus, your) dimes. What are we on? COP30, COP10^6? All of them punctuated by an irate screaming Al Gore or unintentionally droll John Kerry, both admonishing the world for not spending gajillions of dollars on some impossible-to-prove mechanisms to stop earth from doing what it has been doing for billions of years.


All math and all science begin with assumptions. Logic doesn’t underlie logic. Climate-change science isn’t an exception to the rule of axiomatic thinking. Here’s an example from University of California, Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and the Environment (CIEE). The introduction to “California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment – Core Climate Research” reads,


    In the last decade, Californians have endured severe drought, floods, historic wildfires, rising seas, and record temperatures all driven by climate change. Fostering resilience to these impacts requires sustained investment in climate change research and science. *


First, note “sustained investment.” Yep, years, nay decades of continued expenditures with the guarantee that…Well, there’s no guarantee. Keep spending under the assumption that more spending will do something about “climate change.” Keep researching as long as governments keep funding that research.


Second, note “wildfires…driven by….” No mention, of course, that recent “historic” wildfires have little to do with climate, and more to do with weather, bad forest management, decaying electrical transmission lines on 100-year old poles, people intentionally starting fires, and urban encroachment into wilderness areas that adds flammable structures to the wood of the forests.


Third, note “rising seas.” They’ve been rising for 10 millennia. Their rise has pushed people inland from previous coastlines as oceanic transgressions have inundated the lowlands. Think: No coastal communities, no reason to worry about eustatic changes, just as no communities built on fault lines, no reason to worry about devastating earthquakes. We’ve built in disaster zones both before and after we understood Earth’s natural processes. But then, who wouldn’t like a house on the beach, one on a cliffside perch overlooking a city, or one along a river, where a boathouse or boat slip makes for easy weekend sailing?


That “Fifth Climate Assessment” will be available in 2026. “Leveraging diverse expertise throughout the state, the Fifth Assessment will contribute to the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability throughout California. It will support on-the-ground implementation and decision-making at the local, regional, tribal, and state levels, focusing on the needs of communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts.”


In an accompanying video, the CIEE shows a raging forest fire, a flooded road, and mentions a tropical storm that hit the state. This is the “science” behind the work of the CIEE.


But it’s not science is it? It’s all reflections of assumptions and individual incidents. Which of these events would not have occurred under a steady-state climate? California has more than one climate type, from arid to semiarid, to Mediterranean, to rainforest, to highland both below and above the tree line. It’s a state that feels the effects of El Niño and La Niña, of a shifting seasonal semipermanent High or Low off the coast, of a cold ocean current off the coast, of air rising to overcome an orographic barrier to the Westerlies and of air sinking off the highlands to make the Santa Ana winds that have fanned the January, 2025, fires in Los Angeles. Which one of these can the Berkeley researchers or the state government affect?


I can understand a need to protect people and infrastructure from devastating natural phenomena. Earthquake-proofing buildings is necessary. Flood control systems are essential though some deluges are just too overwhelming to control. Cleaning the forest floor of flammable debris is prudent. Establishing reasonable plans to enhance human and environmental sustainability should be the focus, not pie in the sky research into how ordinary weather phenomena (exceptional or rare) are harbingers of a catastrophic change that will wipe out humanity and not research based on the assumption that all natural disasters are climate related. No number of electric vehicles will decrease the rate of warming, stop fires from occurring, or hold back encroaching seas.


It’s Not Science: It’s Mostly Folly   




*Available online.
**

Your planet is a lush and getting lusher. The reasons for the lushness and its increase are 391,000 plant species and increasing and beneficial availability of carbon dioxide. Well, 391,000 soon less one, maybe. Seems that our planet undergoes a constant extinction level, one now elevated by humans eliminating plants and animals either on purpose or as unintended consequences of human activities. That “soon less one—maybe” comes from the list of endangered plants. One of those is the Braunton’s milkvetch plant in California. But do not fear its loss as inevitable. California has protected it from danger imposed by power companies trying to replace old power lines to prevent forest fires. * Seems that the workers replacing old power poles were trampling down the forest veggies, including the perennial Braunton’s milkvetch plant, a bush. So, California halted the project. What were those old power lines going to do…like start fires to burn through entire forests that are home to Braunton’s milkvetch plants? Trampling or burning? Which do you think posed the greater threat?


Now, let’s admit that extinction is not a good thing for a species. But it might be “not so bad a thing” for the planet. Species occupy niches formerly occupied by extinct species. You’re here as a niche-occupier—actually a multple-niche occupier because you’re an omnivore that can live in all 30 of Earth’s climates (albeit for a short time in some). Only a few species survive a long time, and most are relegated to a single ecology. Of those 391,000 species of plants in the Earth inventory at this time, few have lifespans that extend back farther than the Cretaceous Period and few can thrive under more than one climate type (“arid hot,” “arid cold” “monsoonal,” “Mediterranean,” for example; try operating a banana plantation in the Dakotas).


Survival vs Extinction


I planted a ginkgo tree on my property years ago. It’s a male, so it hasn’t produced any seed pods. When it goes, it goes. No offspring. But there are other members of the species that will ensure its survival, possibly for as long into the future as the species stretches into the past—180 million-plus years (Jurassic Period) with some relatives growing in the Permian Period and surviving the “Great Dying.” Ginkgos have survived multiple extinction events. A male and female gingko stand next to each other on the campus where I taught, with the female producing pungent and toxic seeds called “fruits.” (On my way across campus one day I picked up some fallen gingko fruits and absentmindedly during a conversation put them in my jacket pocket; subsequently I forgot about them, and then I had to have the jacket dry-cleaned to remove their odor) Interestingly, the Ginkgo biloba leaves, which turn a brilliant yellow in fall, are not toxic and have are heralded as a memory-boosting supplement and tea—which I could have used to remember placing those fruits in my pocket.


What was I saying?


Oh! Yes, some plant species endure; others don’t for a variety of reasons, one of which is human interference. And in California, where the Braunton’s milkvetch plants grow, humans interfere, supposedly for the good of the plant species, but definitely to the detriment of forests and houses, as the January, 2025, fires reveal. Save a bush; destroy 12,000 structures, I say. Is this an example of “not seeing the forest for the bushes”?


Okay, let’s put some blame on the plant here. “Braunton's milkvetch generally occurs below 2100 feet (640 m) in elevation, on south-, west-, and east-facing slopes, in open areas within chaparral. It is often found growing in disturbed areas such as burn areas, along fire roads or fuel breaks, and in areas that have been cleared by some means and where competition is low. This plant was historically found in gravelly clay soils overlaying granite sandstone, but is now found often associated with carbonate soils derived from scattered limestone lenses, or on noncarbonates at down-wash sites (Skinner 1991; USFWS 1999).” ** It grows in California. Not in Oregon, Nevada, or Arizona. California. Period! A single state. But the good news for environmentalists who “saved” the plant by shutting down the upgrades to the electrical system, is that the bush 'is often found growing in disturbed areas such as burn areas, along fire roads or fuel breaks, and in areas that have been cleared by some means and where competition is low.' The devastating fires that just caused 150 billion dollars in damage and displaced many while killing more than a dozen people have opened new lands for Braunton's milkvetch to colonize.


Are Humans More Important than a Plant?


Sure, we depend on plants to survive. They turn the Sun’s energy into food. But the planet, as I wrote above, is lush and getting lusher. And we consume more than one kind of plant, and to my knowledge, no one eats the Braunton's milkvetch. That it plays some role in California’s  ecosystems is probably undeniable, but what exactly that role is or its significance beyond providing nectar for bees escapes me. The Canadian milkvetch has been used to make a poultice, but I believe that’s a different variety. Maybe there will be environmentalists mourning its eventual loss, but assuredly there are now humans mourning the loss of friends and family.


Okay, so every species adds to the grand interconnectedness of life on Earth. In that sense, losing California’s milkvetch is a loss and maybe a harbinger of declining biodiversity. I’m still not convinced that halting an upgrade to California’s electrical grid was prudent. Humans are also part of the environment—well not those humans made extinct by the fires.


Sure, also, I’m botanically challenged. So, I’ll acknowledge that there are those who see what I cannot see in my ignorance. Plants don’t have to serve humans directly. There are intricate networks underlying all life, and Braunton's milkvetch lies somewhere on some network. But those humans were also part of a network.




*https://nypost.com/2025/01/14/us-news/california-bureaucrats-halted-pacific-palisades-fire-safety-project-to-save-endangered-shrub/


**Center for Plant Conservation. https://saveplants.org/plant-profile/374/Astragalus-brauntonii/Brauntons-Milkvetch/   

The Andrew McNally House, built by the co-founder of the Rand McNally publishing company, was destroyed in the Eaton fire. 


Off the Map


For reasons unknown to me, a stereotype has evolved to label most women as map-challenged. Well, maybe there are anecdotes that lend credence to the stereotype, such as the experience of a friend who with his wife was driving from Pennsylvanias to Florida before the completion of the interstate highway system. After stopping for lunch, the two reentered the road and mistakenly headed north, the wife reading the map. Some time later, the husband asked her to check the map, which she began to do, then, in frustration after trying to orient it, ripped it up and threw it out the window. Ah! Those were the days long before car navigation systems. Then there’s a scene in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz movie The Long, Long Trailer in which Lucy, holding the map as Desi drives, abruptly says, “Turn right here (pause)…left,” causing her husband to swerve right— into a narrow lane off a busy highway, and making backing out nearly impossible. And in my own experience driving a university van during a field trip with college students to places off the beaten path in search of rock outcrops to study geology in situ, a student reading a map (still in pre-satellite-navigation days) said quietly, “Turn (muffled by the noisy van) left,” to which I responded in double checking what I thought I heard, “Left?” The student said loudly, “Right!” That one I heard, so I turned right. (During all subsequent field trips, I asked the map reader to respond, “Correct” or “No,” when I double checked the direction)


Road Atlas


I’m not sure how Rand McNally maps still sell in an age of car navigation systems and smart phones, but they obviously do. There’s a website for the company’s road atlases. So, if your car or smart phone doesn’t direct you, you can navigate the old fashioned way of opening an impossible to refold flat map or a cumbersome large atlas so big it blocks the windshield. But the company still exists, so obviously some people are buying paper maps—meaning some people still know how to read them.


Road maps are reliable unless there are new highways or detours, which most navigation systems recognize, whereas printed maps need updating for new highways and never keep up with detours. Nevertheless, that Rand McNally still has a business makes me think that map-reading, like reading script, hasn’t completely gone the way of Latin. (By the way, I heard there’s a job opening in D.C. for someone who can read script, a job engendered by the discovery of documents written in English script that many public schools have stopped teaching in an age of “txt messaging and emojis”)


So, now the home of Andrew McNally has been wiped off the map by the January, 2025, fires in California. That house and other notable California locations have disappeared into ash just as the empire of Ozymandias disappeared into the desert sands. Future Rand McNally atlases might note the “historical” location of the house for interested travelers on a trip to see once notable landmarks.


And that makes me think of the fleeting nature of most human structures. Sure, the pyramids in Egypt and the Americas, the Great Wall in China and Hadrian’s Wall in the UK have endured; and even the pre-Columbian earthen mounds built in North America are still mappable, but much of what we humans have built has been wiped off the map by natural and human events. Wars, for example, have been especially efficient in making maps “old” or outdated.


Antique maps teach us the lesson of our impermanence. With only a relatively small number of exceptions (like those pyramids), our principal structures are subject to abandonment, decay, and destruction—as the McNally house exemplifies. Neighborhoods change; routes between them change; major population centers have come and gone the way of Timbuktu and Gobekli Tepe. Were he alive today, Andrew McNally, founder of the mapmaking  company, might have difficulty finding the remains of his burned house among the rubble of an area decimated by the fires. Without familiar landmarks, most of us would be hard pressed to find our own neighborhoods even with old maps.


And that reminds me of the observation by a comedian I heard on the radio. (Sorry, can’t remember whom I’m paraphrasing) He said that in going into a small town and asking for directions, he heard, “Just go down this street past the lot where the old oak used to be and turn left. If you pass the drugstore they tore down last year, you’ve gone too far.”


The trees are gone on the road to the McNally house. All the landmarks are gone. The revised road atlas might give the road or street, but it might not list the once-thriving community. We are temporary. Our maps, which are the records of our presence, quickly become antique.