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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As the “No Kings” rally was going on yesterday, I wrote a few posts about the unexpectedly high level of participation that was achieved in places that are normally thought of supporting Trump, e.g., Montana and Idaho.

On the other hand, anyone could have expected that the crowd in Boston would be enormous.  The state of Massachusetts ranks #1 in education nationally, and greater Boston is the home to no fewer than 44 colleges and universities.  So you have students at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston College, and Boston University within bicycling distance.  Then, elsewhere in the state, you have Williams and Amherst, and the nation’s top women’s colleges: Wellesley, Mount Holyoke and Smith.

How many of these folks do you think support the criminal sociopath in the White House?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I heard they were being paid by antifa, but I guess even the truest morons eventually abandoned that idea, insofar as antifa is a political philosophy with no leaders, members, headquarters, or, most importantly, assets.

I happen to know some of these protesters personally, and some of them could have really used the money.  But alas.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The point made at left is a good one, but unfortunately it doesn’t work like this.

Many Americans see things like medicine, civil engineering, and aeronautics as real, but environmental science (the work of a combination of physicists, chemists, biologists/ecologists) as “junk,” the work of America-haters and anti-capitalists.

In the United States alone, approximately 84,600 environmental scientists and specialists were employed as of 2024. A bit fewer than half of these work for government entities, the remainder for consulting companies and private industry. In terms of job growth, the U.S. is projected to see an average of 8,500 new job openings for environmental scientists each year from 2024 to 2034.
That seems like a lot of Marxist sissies to me.  

If you’re wondering how strong the grasp of Big Oil and related industries’ propaganda is on the American mind, you’ve just answered your own question.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The piece at left is interesting, but I doubt there’s any real truth to it, even though every decent person in America wishes this were so.

Trump supporters come in two varieties:

1) Uneducated MAGA white nationalists, who believe that we just saw a relatively small number of Marxists, domestic terrorists, sexual deviants, and haters of America take to the streets.

2) The amoral rich people, who understand that Trump, with his overt lawlessness and authoritarianism, is still in charge, regardless of what a bunch of liberals want.  We give him money, and he gives us what we want, especially tax breaks and advantageous legislation.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be proud of what we did; let’s just not expect any real change.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Doubt is what characterizes the scientific method.  Scientists don’t want to believe they are right; they want to subject what they believe to rigorous testing in an attempt to disprove the thinking of the day, hoping for a better explanation of the world around them.

Science stands in opposition to religion, whose adherents have total certainty of the tenets of their faith: God, Jesus, heaven, sin, hell, and the other “facts” presented in the Bible: the Creation, the age of the Earth, Noah, the talking snake, Jonah and the hundreds of other biblical stories.

From what we see at left, it appears that Voltaire preferred doubt.  To use his language: it’s uncomfortable, but it’s not ridiculous.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Today’s political rhetoric is a reflection of the pathetic state of our educational system.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Trump administration continues to claim that antifa is a criminal, anti-American organization with leaders, a headquarters, and millions of Marxist members–and all this is believed by tens of millions of Trump supporters who get their “news” from Fox News and Newsmax.

Note that this would have been impossible until very recently.  We boomers, and even many younger people, remember a time when Americans were simply not this stupid.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Over the years, I’ve heard scientists lament that very few Americans have any real interest or ability in the subject.  “Go into a high school classroom,” a friend who works with electric motors once told me, “And ask a bunch of graduating seniors to says ‘yes!’ if they can name a popular singer or a top football player.  The response is deafening.  Now ask that class if they can name a living scientist. Crickets.”

I grant that this is the case, or at least it used to be; I believe it’s changing, now that we have people like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and Brian Cox, each of whom has considerable presence in social media.

Speaking of Cox, check out what he says at the left.  Here we have science mixed with philosophy, which strikes me as a good thing.

I.e., it’s good that people understand that our civilization actually is on the edge of destroying itself, and that it’s only by our vigorous participation in working together to find solutions that provide us any chance of turning this around before it’s too late.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Good point made at left.

From there, I might point to the vast majority of the United States population that, over the years, has stood up for the U.S. Constitution and rule of law.

Keep in mind that a significant portion of this population is the highest level of the U.S. military, who took an oath to protect the Constitution, not some deranged individual.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The No Kings rally organizers said they wanted protest signs to be “non-hostile.”

OK, OK, but let’s keep in mind that this lady is Irish.  These people tend to be a bit hot-blooded, which, under the circumstances, seems 100% fine.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A lady asked me why I’m part of the No Kings rally in Hopkinsville (Kentucky).

Because my father, and about five million of his Anti-Fascist, yes, ANTIFA, buddies, started at Omaha Beach and marched to Berlin to defeat fascism. I will to my last breath fight fascism here in the United States of America.

A few comments:

I’m so happy and proud to hear this! Tears are welled up in my eyes.

The folks who organized the rally said they wanted cool signs; yours should win a prize. (More legible version below.)

Kentucky isn’t exactly the intellectual capital of the Union, and Hopkinsville is quite a poke from anywhere.  You must stand out there.  Good for you!

In closing: Every true American should honor you and what you’re doing.

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