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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I don’t know who this guy is or what his area of expertise may be.  It’s certainly not education.

Getting rid of Algebra 2 will mean the end of all college students who major in chemistry, physics, and, of course, mathematics.  In turn, it means no more pre-meds, and, a few years later, no more doctors produced in the United States.

Of course, when you walk through a medical office and read the surnames of the doctors practicing there, it’s clear that, through our eviscerating American education over the past few decades, we’re 90% of the way along this terrible process.

Also: no engineering means no new infrastructure, cars, and IT.  All advancements in technology will come from Europe and Asia.

We can teach our kids about financial fundamentals like credit cards and buying a house, but they will be so desperately poor that none of these skills will have any meaning.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s quite possible that we actually are at the onset of a “collective awakening.”

Maybe we’ve seen enough.  Enough hatred.  Enough stupidity.

Maybe we see the handwriting on the wall for women’s rights, for environmental decay.

Maybe Americans don’t want a leader who came within a gnat’s fanny of overthrowing the government and setting democracy asunder.

Maybe enough is enough.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Bob Weir was only 16 years old when he cofounded The Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia.

A full 60 years later, he’s known for having spent more time on stage than any other musician, and for his commitment to environmental and social activism.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

It would be interesting to know what percentage of our neighbors take the Book of Genesis literally and believe that the Earth is 6000 years old.

I suppose it depends on what we mean by “neighbors” and/or where we live, and therefore, who our neighbors actually are. If you’re in rural Mississippi, the answer will be far different than if you’re in Manhattan or San Francisco.

In any case, I grant that beliefs like this, i.e., those that require a wholesale dismissal of science, are frightening indeed.  If you want to know how it’s possible that so many Americans are anti-vaxxers, climate deniers, and Trump supporters, this gives you a pretty good insight.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There are dozens of reasons to stay away from Texas, but this may sit at the very top of the list.

We’ve come to expect acts of white nationalist terrorism committed by rank-and-file hateful morons.  But now we see these atrocities coming from the governor of the state.

That’s too much.  Even for Texas.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

In a previous post, I presented this short and extremely general video, in which a representative of ExxonMobil explains Direct Air Capture (DAC), a set of technologies that remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

I mentioned that the concept is doomed to failure, and everyone, including Exxon, knows this.

Their latest installment in promoting this bull**** claims they’re “testing the design in Texas.”

What could these tests possibly conclude?  That the design actually does filter out CO2?  I’ll grant that, even without the testing.  In fact, there are several teams of people around the globe working on this. Only Exxon is spending a fortune promoting it, though, since they are the ones with the huge PR problem associated with baking the planet.

The problem here, and it’s insurmountable, is that this technology has a huge carbon footprint of its own, and that scaling it to deal with the Earth’s atmosphere is a joke.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

What we’ve learned here is that almost half of Americans voters couldn’t care less about the Biden administration’s accomplishments vis-a-vis the environment.

Of course, most of Trump’s base will never hear about these victories, or, if they do, will think of them as victories for the big government, radical left socialists who hate our country.

It’s pathetic, but this is what we’re dealing with.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

Before Donald Trump entered our nation’s political scene, this level of ignorance of American/world history (shown at left) would have disqualified a candidate from the White House just as assuredly as his own personal death.  Before this time, to be the butt of jokes from junior high-schoolers would not have played well, even in the MAGA parts of the nation.

Now, of course, huge portions of voters don’t know that the events of 1775, 1812 and the 20th Century didn’t happen all at once.

Let’s accept that all our votes count the same.  When it comes to our elections, intelligent and knowledgeable people have no advantage over the illiterate.

This country may get through this stupidity.  Or, more probably, it will not.

 

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Interesting to see this quote from Tolstoy, strangely appropriate to modern American politics.

From the Brennan Center for Justice:

As recent reports have revealed, former President Donald Trump and his allies are making plans for how a second Trump administration would use the powers of the federal government to punish Trump’s critics and political opponents. Among other things, Trump would reportedly invoke the Insurrection Act — a law that gives the president nearly unchecked powers to use the military as a domestic police force — on his first day in office, so that he could quash any public protests against him. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From this piece on Steve Bannon:

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on Tuesday argued the Justice Department is trying to silence “the voice of MAGA” after federal prosecutors called on a judge to lift the stay on his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House panel tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Prosecutors cited the ruling of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released last week, which affirmed Bannon’s conviction, in their request for the judge to order Bannon to begin serving his sentence.

“Consequently, there is no longer a ‘substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial,’” the prosecutors wrote in their motion. “Under these circumstances, the Court ‘shall order’ defendant ‘be detained.’”

In response, Bannon claimed this was another effort by the prosecution to keep conservatives quiet.

“I’m shocked they want to silence the voice of MAGA,” he told ABC News.

Those of us who support justice and democracy will have to get accustomed to the whining of Trump and his co-conspirators whenever legal action is taken against them.  We can count on being told that any and all such efforts on the part of the justice system are designed to silence the MAGA movement.  And obviously, since there are huge “news” media sources that support these groundless claims, we can expect some level of resonance with the Trump base.

Note: The photo above featuring a handcuffed Bannon in court was taken at an unrelated event: his arraignment on six felony counts re: his having ripped off Trump supporters who foolishly believed they were contributing to building a wall at the southern border, when in fact, they were shoveling their savings directly into Steve Bannon’s pockets.

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Bannon “acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country — including hundreds of Manhattan residents.”

 

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