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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I get that this fellow is a conservative and has all manner of charming little platitudes to articulate his political point of view.

Look, sir.  The majority of Americans simply want to live like the citizens of the happiest countries on Earth.  These are the “social democracies” of Scandinavia, Europe, Iceland, Austria, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and many others.

Their people are productive, but they aren’t over-stressed, diseased, or scared of fascism.  They take care of one another–and their environment. They are led by sane and compassionate people, and they’re not fed utter crap by their government.

One other thing they’re not: irresponsible.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

When you or I read what Joe Biden said last night (see left), we tend to think: “Of course. Our democracy is indeed in danger, and we need to fight to keep it from being usurped by Trump and his supporters.”

Unfortunately, when Trumpers read this, they have a very different reaction: “There they go again.  Those radical woke leftist extremists trying to make less of the work that the President has done in bringing down prices, and making America respected again by the rest of the world.”

I’ve had more productive conversations with my dogs.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

When I came across the meme here, I thought it was a joke. Does somebody seriously believe that there are “anti-ICE rioters” that they’re doing damage to our cities?

Chewing on this further, I suppose that the most gullible members of the Fox News crowd may buy this.  My mom once told my brother and me that undocumented people in sanctuary cities could commit rape and murder, and the police weren’t allowed to arrest them.  We told her that she would do well to look up the term “sanctuary city,” aka “safe city,” so named because these cities normally have less crime than their counterparts, since immigrants feel safe speaking to and cooperating with law enforcement personnel.

Police chiefs in large cities prefer this arrangement, as their duty is keeping people safe by reducing crime, not deporting harmless and law-abiding immigrants.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Most Americans have their own take on the geography of the South.  For me, it’s not completely geographic; it’s partly sociographic.  For example, Northern Virginia is about as cosmopolitan a place as you’re going to find in the United States, but it’s at the same latitude as West Virginia, which ranks 45th out of the 50 states in education.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I know lots of wealthy people from prep school, college, and several decades of business consulting, all of whom seemed like decent folks at the time. Yet now, I sometimes wonder how many are Trump donors.  It’s upsetting just to think about it.

It’s hard to believe that this collapse of basic moral values happened in the United States.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The Permian Basin is a vast sedimentary basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico that is the largest oil and gas-producing region in the United States.

I just got an email from “East Daley,” whose white paper Permian Basin at a Crossroads “breaks down who stands to benefit—and who’s at risk.”

I can answer these questions without even reading the white paper:

Who stands to benefit (monetarily): Greedy pigs whose investments are ruining the planet.

Who’s at risk: The eight-plus billion people on this planet who, along with their descendants, are counting on a stable climate.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A reader notes: These are war crimes meant to test the amount of public outrage they can get away with.

That’s a distinct possibility, though it’s hard to know the precise motive for these crimes.  Obviously, Trump supporters have no issues with our country’s executing countless numbers of potentially innocent people.

It’s fair to say the rest of us are “outraged,” but that’s something that happens almost every day.

As someone posted, “Biden was far from perfect, but at least we didn’t wake up every morning wondering what new form of hell we would be living in.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

If I were writing the piece at left, I wouldn’t say, “the system is rigged,” because that implies some clandestine.

I would say the system is designed to make rich people richer, and to ignore the needs of the masses. It’s working exactly as it’s designed to.

Now it’s true that all this is more obvious now than it was 50 years ago when the average American came out of college and got an office job that enabled him to earn a living wage.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In other posts, we’ve looked at the prospects of a massive refusal on the part of America’s top military to follow a manifestly illegal order, like invading Canada.

What about a less dramatic case?  What if I were the chief White House superintendent and Trump told me to bulldoze the East Wing?  I’d say, “Sorry, I resign as of this minute. You may find someone who will destroy a national treasure, but it’s sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

It’s true that Norway is a world leader in renewable energy. To be fair, however, they have a few things going for them.

One is the hydro resource itself, which is enormous, especially considering the nation’s small population.

The other, and it’s just as important, is the fact that Norway really wants to remove fossil fuels from its grid-mix. They sport a population of extremely enlightened people who actually care about the welfare of the people in the world around them.

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