Mr.Thiel, you are a foolish man. Allow me to explain.

Driving home this evening I heard the NPR story “Peter Thiel Stands Out In Silicon Valley For Support Of Donald Trump” (Laura Sydell | October 31, 2016), in the story the man demonstrated such childish logic for such a big man that when I got home I couldn't help pound out the following response.

Mr. Thiel, you’ve taken offense that many say you show significant “lack of judgement” by coming out in support of Donald Trump the gold plated narcissist who would be President. 

On Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., you defended your position: "It's not a lack of judgment that leads Americans to vote for Trump.  We're voting for Trump because we judge the leadership of our country to have failed.”

I thought you said you were a man of good judgement?  What's with that yuge non sequitur?  What does Washington DC leadership failures have to do with being suckered by a big talking hustler like the beauty pageant magnet Donald Trump? 

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To quote from the NPR story:

Considering the Republican need for delusions 2016

I tried writing something today, but constant interruptions made it impossible to get anywhere and there's another crowded week ahead.  So I'm going to placate my frustration by sharing some insightful quotes from a few important recent articles regarding our upcoming election.

Donald Trump and the Religion of White Nostalgia

By Ed Kilgore | NYmag.com

New PRRI survey shows white evangelicals will be “left behind”

By Anthea Butler | ReligionDispatches.org

How the Media Manufactured Hatred of Hillary Clinton

By Neal Gabler | BillMoyers.com

Trump’s Bogus Voter Fraud Claims

By Robert Farley | FactCheck.org

House Republicans are already preparing for ‘years’ of investigations of Clinton

By David Weigel | Washington Post

  THE GEORGE W. BUSH WHITE HOUSE ‘LOST’ 22 MILLION EMAILS  

By Nina Burleigh | Newsweek.com

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Trump, here's to looking at the Man in the Mirror.

George Monbiot has written another insightful, if biting, examination of the struggle going on within my American society.  Here he makes clear that Donald Trump is not an outlier, but the distillation of our dominant value.

I like this article because I've been thinking about how Trump both personifies and exalts in being the quintessential Ugly American, and I’m regretting not having any time for building an essay around the theme.  

George Monbiot’s assessment echo’s with my own so since I can’t write about it myself I’ll at least share this introduction to his excellent article and encourage you link to the full story at monbiot.com - he describes a reality folks should become aware of and hopefully help encourage thinking about in a more constructive way, before this increasing extremism and disconnect from fundamental down to Earth realities leads to genuine chaos.

I hope this intro encourages you to read the rest of the article

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The Man in the Mirror

28th October 2016

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 26th October 2016

What is the worst thing about Donald Trump? The lies? The racist stereotypes? The misogyny? The alleged gropings? The apparent refusal to accept democratic outcomes? All these are bad enough. But they’re not the worst. 

The worst thing about Donald Trump is that he’s the man in the mirror.

We love to horrify ourselves with his excesses, and to see him as a monstrous outlier, the polar opposite of everything a modern, civilized society represents. But he is nothing of the kind. He is the distillation of all that we have been induced to desire and admire. 

Trump is so repulsive not because he offends our civilization’s most basic values, but because he embodies them.

Questioning Tide Gauge ability to measure global mean sea level rise. (Thompson et al. 2016)

I came across this freshly released study that highlights the short coming of relying on Tide Gauges for estimating global mean sea level rise.  I'm posting this because it reminded me of my Virtual Debate with Dave Burton of NC-20 the North Carolina ocean science denial organization.  They are real estate focused folks who wanted the NC legislature to ignore climate science and sea level rise predictions when planning for the future.  A stellar example of willful ignorance in action.  Dave continues crusading for ignoring the facts at our disposal.

He has an obsessive focus on Tide Gauges and he claims that TGs prove that oceanographers don't know what they are talking about when they warn of accelerating sea level rise and it's consequences based on a combination of measurements.  Dave has particular contempt for satellite data, but never could explain why, in any meaningful manner.  {Dave, here's some more reasons that explain why you are wrong about your sea level claims.}

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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL070552/abstract

Tide Gauge Records May Underestimate 20th Century Sea Level Rise

Are long tide gauge records in the wrong place to measure global mean sea level rise? (Thompson et al. 2016) 

Abstract: Ocean dynamics, land motion, and changes in Earth’s gravitational and rotational fields cause local sea level change to deviate from the rate of global mean sea level rise. 

Here, we use observations and simulations of spatial structure in sea level change to estimate the likelihood that these processes cause sea level trends in the longest and highest-quality tide gauge records to be systematically biased relative to the true global mean rate. 

The analyzed records have an average 20th century rate of approximately 1.6 mm/yr, but based on the locations of these gauges, we show the simple average underestimates the 20th century global mean rate by 0.1  ±  0.2 mm/yr. Given the distribution of potential sampling biases, we find < 1% probability that observed trends from the longest and highest-quality TG records are consistent with global mean rates less than 1.4 mm/yr.

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Highlights include enriched and related content of notable journal articles presented on Eos org AGU org AGU On Demand and in AGU journals

Tide Gauge Records May Underestimate 20th Century Sea Level Rise

Leah Crane, September 26, 2016

From Eos.org: Research Spotlights—

Tide gauges can help measure sea level change, but their limited locations and short records make it hard to pinpoint trends. …

USA, what's the point of voting?

I saw a refreshing video today, it offered hope in the face of the coming election and got me to thinking.

http://savetheday.vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox4HbjT0HKk

You see, like gallows' day, the rapidly approaching USA election day has been crowding my thoughts and depressing my spirits.  I am gobsmacked that a demonstrable egomaniac and blowhard, with the intellectual depth of a trustafarian barfly is the GOP standard barer and presidential candidate.  

I mean all these Republicans and even preachers of God who constantly flaunt their high and mighty moral standards and supposed superior grasp of human affairs and world politics and god's will, are rolling over for this amoral, financial and intellectual fraud named Trump.  What would God think?

Look at the situation!  Republicans are willing to sell their integrity to a New York demagogue who's home is gilded in gold.  Where is that right wing's moral fiber when it's needed?