DONALD TRUMP MUST BE COGNITIVELY DISSONANT

What?  Huh?  What is cognitive dissonance?  Read on.

In the USA today, Muslims, Mexicans, marginal Obamacare enlistees, Moms by Choice, and faithful renewable energy/global warming adherents are in advanced stages of alarm.  In only ten days PUS (President of the United States) #45, Donald Trump, did exactly what he said he would do in in his presidential campaign.  Even  before he was inaugurated, according to The Wall Street Journal, he was already the most unpopular president at this stage in forty years.  

There is usually a honeymoon period for incoming presidents.  As of yesterday, Trump reached a majority disapproval quotient faster than anyone else in modern history.

Scientists are particularly apprehensive and dismayed.  Scientific American has rather loudly expressed fear.  Click on that to read a letter from 800 earth scientists and energy experts.  I can imagine how this group arrived at that necessary, but no doubt useless, piece of communication.  Basically, how to provide a compelling message without pissing him off.  The bottom line is that this group of voters has no influence over PUS#45.

Three days ago the notion of our supreme leader being liar, coward or delusional was advanced.  I quoted liberal Pulitzer Prize and conservative New York Times columnists.  This morning, liberal New York Times (below, first) and Evangelical Christian (second) commentators.

Maureen Dowd:

If the last president was too above the fray, this one is the fray. We’ve gone from no drama to all drama, a high ethical standard to no ethical standard.

Cal Thomas:

This week, President Trump will nominate someone to the Supreme Court. He told David Brody of CBN News that it is a person Evangelical Christians “will love.” 

(Nominated was Neil Gorsuch, 49-year old conservative who will have a rough time getting through the Senate, but should ease by relatively quickly.  His mother was head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Ronald Reagan.  Troubling that he interprets the Constitution as the Founding Fathers would have.  Certain amendments have in time become obsolete, but he will continue to support gun rights.)  This will be a plus for PUS#45.

Scientific American, in its January edition, indicated:

Donald Trump's Lack of Respect for Science is Alarming

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, in this issue wondered why ignorant people provided the actual facts doubled down their beliefs in the teeth of overwhelming evidence.  He cited evolution and vaccines causing autism as just two such examples.  Well, a third, Donald Trump and his fantasies.  Without getting too steeped into psychology, the term cognitive dissonance was applied.  My delusion theory is gaining scientific traction.

But, surely, a billionaire who prevailed in a fair election to lead the most powerful nation ever must have redeeming virtues.  So let me end on a positive note:

All Truth, according to Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher, passes through three stages:

• First it is ridiculed (The was Trump;s first thought about global warming).
• Second, it is violently opposed (His EPA nominee shows this progress.)
• Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is possible that President Trump is merely wending his way to the ultimate truth.  From all reports, he does not have the Evangelical Christian viewpoint about things like evolution.  He has been able to successfully skirt most of the moral issues by faking his faith. However, if in addition to lying he is cognitively dissonant, fuggedaboutit. 

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UPDATE ON THE BLUE REVOLUTION

There was, of course, the Green Revolution, a term applied to the technological advances of grain production,  Norman Borlaug, the so-called Father of the Green Revolution, won a Nobel Prize in 1970 for his efforts.  While fraught with problems here and there, the next green revolution shows promise for further improving agriculture.

For good reason I guess, as we have messed up our land and atmosphere, most of the efforts ongoing about our oceans seem mostly protective.  Many are aware of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Oceana, Greenpeace, Ocean Conservancy and Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.  

Take a close look at every outstanding university with marine eminence, their focus is almost solely confined to observation, measurement and modeling.  There is almost no funding for development of sustainable ocean resources for the future of humanity.

Thus was created the Blue Revolution.  Previous engineering emphases were focused on water production, energy and fisheries.   Not sure who actually coined the term itself, but blame me, for a quarter century ago, after a decade of being involved with elemental aspects of the field, I thought why not combine all the useful aspects of the field. The Blue Revolution has had three linked pathways:  water production, future fisheries and the cornucopia of bioproducts spawned by the total ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) process. While the Green Revolution did, indeed, improve agriculture, the Blue Revolution not only promises to develop sustainable resources, but, perhaps more importantly, also enhance the environment.

For past summaries of this concept, my various Huffington Post articles can be read:

• The Dawn of the Blue Revolution
• Blue Revolution

There are several more if you want further clarification.

Click on:

     OUR NEXT FRONTIER:  THE OCEAN--Some Early Pioneers

This posting of almost six years ago provides some background of the early marine venturers.  It ends with Kiyonori Kikutake, who in 1958 advanced his Marine City project.  In 1975 he designed Aquapolis (left) for the Okinawa Ocean Expo.  

I visited this facility several times, and tried to convince the powers that were to rehabilitate and send this platform to Lisbon, when they hosted the next ocean expo, which occurred in 1998.  But back to Kikutake, with John Craven, for the 1976 bicentennial, they built a scale model of their floating city, weighing 150 tons, helped by 130 volunteers and $80,000.  Unfortunately, early in the effort, the structure sank, and might well still be rusting away in Kaneohe Bay.  Sad to say, but no one has since that fiasco built anything worthy of mention.  

Having observed the success Lockheed had in 1979 of proving that net-positive could be attained with their Mini-OTEC off Keahole Point on the Big Island, where the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA) is now located, I happened to be working for U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC, who asked me to draft the first OTEC bill.  This legislation became law in 1980, having a goal of 10,000 megawatts in 1999.  

How successful were we?  Today, there is approximately zero MW of net-positive OTEC power being generated.  The two OTEC facilities on Kumejima (Okinawa) and NELHA have failed to produce more energy than used.

In the early 80s, Paul Yuen and I, working closely with the state government and U.S. Congress, created the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR).  The first real published paper on the Blue Revolution followed a keynote presentation Richard Matsumura and I made in 1991 at the First Very Large Floating Structures Conference.  Matsuura was a State Senator and had worked for Norman Borlaug on the Green Revolution.   

1992 was a big year for the concept as Joseph Vadus and I hosted a workshop on how to build the Blue Revolution Platform, and I ghost wrote for Senator Daniel Inouye a Sea Technology paper titled The American Blue Revolution.  You can read all the details in Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.  Here is an excerpt serialized in this blog site.  If only we had succeeded in finding $500 million (or half a billion dollars) after that 1992 gathering for the Blue Revolution, instead of the world spending $150 billion for the International Space Station, which could well crash down to Earth in 2020 without starting even one successful company, I can only dream as to how much better off Humanity would be today. 

PICHTR's showcase project was the 210 kW open cycle OTEC experiment at NELHA, which was tested from 1993-1998.  That was the last major facility anything close to net positive.  This was truly an international partnership, as Japan absorbed about a third of the cost.  It's almost unimaginable to me, but this was two decades ago.

OTEC is important because the system provides electricity, nutrients to initiate the bio-growth cycle, freshwater, next generation fisheries, hydrogen and other sustainable energies, plus prevent hurricanes from forming and remediate global warming.  Placed on a floating platform, marine industrial parks, and in time marine cities, can be supported.

The reality of this all is that the Blue Revolution has become the Blue Evolution.  But things are happening.  Unfortunately, Bill Spencer of Hawaii Oceanic Technology shut down his ahi farm concept.  Bill participated in the planning of the Blue Revolution.  Here is a photo of a Blue Revolution Hawaii board dinner, and Bill is the second person on the right.  Note, we're all wearing blue.

On the plus side, I donated my apartment to initiate a Blue Revolution program at the University of Hawaii.  The Seasteading Institute has formed a partnership with French Polynesia to build floating islands (right).  Watch a talk I provided to the Institute on the Blue Revolution.

So what of the future?  Well, Lockheed Martin indicated that the time for OTEC is now.  Frankly, what the Blue Revolution needs is an enlightened billionaire.  Please send me one, or more.

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THE CUISINE OF 15 CRAIGSIDE

Very simply, it cost me $400,000 to move into 15 Craigside, and I'm guaranteed a lifetime  here, even if I run out of money.  Hint:  they won't admit you if they think you won't be able to pay the monthly fee for the rest of your life, which is a bit over $4000/month, $6,000 for couples.

I have heard that two residents have been called in and told they cannot go to Las Vegas anymore.  A couple gave their savings to their children, who were told that unless they returned the money, they would legally now be obligated to care for their parents.  A lady showed me a letter indicating that she can't contribute to charities.  All of this makes sense to me.  You need to file a yearly financial statement.  They haven't inquired about my spending, so I guess I'm doing okay.

15C provides three meals/day and cleans my room weekly, changing the sheets and towels.  The security here is considerable, and there must be ten activities daily, mostly exercise classes, but also movies, poker and the Royal Hawaiian Band.  The staff is fabulous and extremely helpful.  This is a sister property of Arcadia (left), which has been around for half a century, so the long-term prospects are excellent, plus,  we are both run by a religious organization, headed by the Central Union Church, which is celebrating its 182nd anniversary in Hawaii.

When I moved in I decided that, in the short time I had left, every meal would be an event, where cuisine quality, convenience, timeliness, view, etc., prevailed.  Thus, I only come down to the dining room 25 of the free 90 meals/month, usually skipping breakfast and lunch.  A significant waste of money, yes, but I have sufficient funds to do what I reasonably want into the foreseeable future.  I also take frequent trips because soon I won't be able to do this.  But they are stressful, so I particularly savor an exquisite meal featuring a peaceful and celestial skyscape at sunset from my lanai,  here, both the Moon and Venus.

I thoroughly enjoy the regular tables (seating seven) from Sunday through Thursday.  I reserve the weekends to live life my way.  Monday night is easily the most notable, for we have a resident, Dexter, who willingly plans the cocktail for the night, with the alcohol provided by volunteers, he also makes drinks for selected people in three other tables.  Here to the right, his Air Force One, which is served on Obama's Air Force One.  The pupus (local appetizers) many times result in most of us skipping the dinner entirely.

I might add that there is always a bottle or two of wine to complement the cocktail.  Our notoriety is such that we almost once became a special interest clip on CNN.  To the left, I'm wearing my Air Force One jacket and cap to toast an Air Force One drink.  On this night there is always a local dessert, ranging from Japanese senbei (rice crackers) to Chinese rice cakes to Hawaiian haupia (coconut and milk pudding).

The other tables range from just a simple drink or two (usually wine), except that twice/week, with the group I most dine with, we joke about having a night of abstention, but typically consume some combination of wine, sochu, sake, sherry and the like, for we hate to leave a bottle unfinished.  Without a doubt, in the 2.5 years I've lived here, I've eaten more poke (marinated local fish concoction) than my previous life, combined.  Unexpectedly, every night is a party, and we usually spend two hours in interesting conversation.  This is good for me, as the five years after Pearl passed away I usually ate alone and was on the verge of becoming a hermit.  Above, with my neighbors, Al and Charlotte.

There is a different breakfast buffet focus each morning, with Wednesdays being Japanese and Thursdays loco moco.  You can also order from a menu, like Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice.  I'm estimating because I'm too lazy to find the guidelines, but guests can be accommodated:  $14 for breakfast, $18 lunch and $24 dinner. If you invite someone who orders a bowl of saimin for dinner, you still pay the full $24.  If you choose to order from the kitchen, the kalbi is excellent and ox tail soup very good.  The pastas are bland, but okay.  There is also dessert, sometimes okay and many times Jello.  Arcadia, I hear has great desserts.  But sugar is really bad for your health, so I pass anyway.

The lunch and dinner specials are on a five-week cycle.  The salad/soup section is excellent.  The cuisine itself, if you can call it that, is adequate for a cafeteria.  It is said that ours is more local, relative to Arcadia's.  They also require you to wear long pants and shoes for dinner.  Here, most men are in shorts and slippers, though many dress warmer because they keep the temperature cold in the room.  And speaking of temperature, each warm item is too cold, plus the vegetables are always overcooked. I order take-out for $1.50 and enhance the dish.  As for example, I fry garlic in butter, add the clams linguini and top it off with basil leaves from my herb garden.  With a Pinot Grigio at sunset, I enjoy the temperature, taste and solitude.

I was chairman of the Dining Committee for about a year and a half, and passed on this major role to another resident, who was a nicer person.  I was beginning to alienate the management with my ideas.  There is, really, nothing more important here than food.

I also created and chair a dining-out subcommittee, where we have selected top restaurants in town, where the 15C van drops us off and picks us up.  Last week, for example, we went to Eating House 1849 and had a good look at the new Waikiki International Market Place.  This happens at least monthly.  

The problem with going out is that we waste that $24, and end up paying more than $100 for what should be free.  When you add the wine, the cost can be exorbitant.  Thus, a resident will be proposing a dining-in function, using our solarium, which is ideally conformed with a magnificent view, full kitchen next door.  Tablecloths, candles, dress code, violin accompaniment, bring your own wine...for a small extra charge.  Small meaning much less than $100.  This would make 15 Craigside distinctly exceptional among all other seniors community facilities.

The BBQ subcommittee worked with the management, who bought us a spiffy barbecue grill.  This adds yet another option for residents.  This will allow floors to get together on occasion and other groups to bond.  Every BBQ I've attended was fun and enjoyable.  We're attempting to work out with management a more equitable system for providing things like rice and salad.  

I try to go golfing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  For a while I splurged on bentos from Zippy's or Rainbow Drive Inn and immediately then walked at the Ala Wai Golf Course.  By the 6th hole my blood pressure dropped to as low as 80/50, which made me dizzy.  I finally figured out that the food caused this problem.  So I now have a huge breakfast of something like ahi belly with eggs, rice and tsukemono, then write my blog, allowing time before golf.  My blood pressure now only drops to 110/60 at the 6th hole, but returns to 130/80 by the 18th.

My typical Friday dinner is on my lanai, and this is what I had this week: rib eye, Shiitake mushrooms, foie gras, the #3 Japanese rice from Gifu, ahi sashimi, a Meritage from Stanford and Kirin Beer. 

I've been trying to photograph the Green Flash from 15 Craigside, and I just might have succeeded:

I regularly saw the Green Flash from my next door penthouse, but the opportunities from 15 Craigside are scant.  

15 Craigside also serves special meals during holidays, such as Christmas.  We need two servings, for many family members are invited.  Yesterday, we had a Chinese New Year lunch.  Here is what I had:

Note the Moutai, a 106-proof Chinese potion.  The traditional version can be purchased in China Town for $200.  Half a bottle of this substitute still costs $35.  Also a Pinot Grigio and a very special Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon from the next table.

We then went to see a documentary on Hawaii's China Town.  The film indicated that Honolulu needs a museum to commemorate the role played by local Chinese in the development of Hawaii...and China, for the founder, Sun Yat Sen, lived here as a student.  Went to Iolani and Punahou.  Here, his statue at the Chinese Cultural Plaza.

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IS DONALD TRUMP A LIAR OR COWARD OR WORSE?

Today is the Chinese New Year.  A few proverbs:

• One man tells a lie, dozens repeat as the truth.
• Those who bully the weak are cowards before the strong.

If Donald Trump only came a few months earlier, he would have been a Rooster.  As it is, he is a Dog.

In two recent op-eds, Connie Shultz said Donald Trump is a liar, and David Brooks called him a coward.  I think he is neither.  I fear he is DELUDED!

Schultz is a Pulitzer prize-winning columnist, who reached back to her fifth grade, where her Miss Nelson declared the the worst thing you could ever say about a person was that he was a liar.  There was then no hope for that person.  Said Schultz:

It hurts to the marrow of my bones to say this, but there's no use in pretending that we don't have a chronic liar in the White House.

Brooks, Jewish, and a conservative cultural commentator for The New York Times, has lived an interesting life.  While an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, he penned a satirical campus piece, spoofing William F. Buckley Jr., who was scheduled to speak there:

In the afternoons he is in the habit of going into crowded rooms and making everybody else feel inferior. The evenings are reserved for extended bouts of name-dropping.

He went further to indicate:

Some would say I’m envious of Mr. Buckley. But if truth be known, I just want a job and have a peculiar way of asking. So how about it, Billy? Can you spare a dime?

This led to an internship for the National Review, founded by Buckley.  Brooks went on to work for the very conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, then as movie reviewer for The Washington Times.  He went on to write for the Wall Street Journal, and is now with The New York Times, a liberal publication.  But, remember, he is a conservative.

So, about President Trump:

Consider the tenor of Trump’s first week in office. It’s all about threat perception. He has made moves to build a wall against the Mexican threat, to build barriers against the Muslim threat, to end a trade deal with Asia to fight the foreign economic threat, to build black site torture chambers against the terrorist threat.

Then:

If Reagan’s dominant emotional note was optimism, Trump’s is fear. If Reagan’s optimism was expansive, Trump’s fear propels him to close in: Pull in from Asian entanglements through rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Pull in from European entanglements by disparaging NATO. It’s not a cowering, timid fear; it’s more a dark, resentful porcupine fear.

Also:

We have a word for people who are dominated by fear. We call them cowards. Trump was not a coward in the business or campaign worlds. He could take on enormous debt and had the audacity to appear at televised national debates with no clue what he was talking about. But as president his is a policy of cowardice. On every front, he wants to shrink the country into a shell.

As terrible as it is to lie, and as sapless as it is to be a coward, I'm more concerned that he is delusional.  I have a sense that the Donald mostly believes in what he says.  His mentality has just  not matured, and, at the age of 71, never will.  His mind is similar to a five-year old's.  He constructs an alternative reality, and actually believes what he thinks.  This is a particularly dangerous trait in the Most Powerful Leader of the World.  His tweets are symptomatic of this psychological disorder.  I fear some awful things happening over the next few years.

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