For the U.S., a Time of Great Brutality and Stupidity
This period of American history will never be forgotten, as much as we wish it could be.
Tagged with: Brutality and Stupidity
Should Republicans Fix the Problems in Massively Red States?
The sad truth is that most voters in “red states” don’t believe that there’s anything that needs “fixing” in their lives, and that goes double if the people proposing to do that fixing are the “radical leftists” in Washington.
It’s true that folks from the heavily Trump-dominated states in the South and Midwest are at the bottom of the rankings in terms of things that most people around the world hold valuable. Don’t most of us like good health, education, and economic opportunities? Do we really like to be sick, ignorant, and poor?
The only inference I can draw is that people like to be right, and they hate being wrong.
Heap on top of that the influence of evangelical Christianity, and nobody really cares who’s dying young, and living in abject ignorance.
Why Should Our Government Favor Red States with Federal Aid?
Outside of the moral depravity of Donald Trump, had it ever occurred to a U.S. president to punish the people who happen to live in states that voted against you?
This sociopathic behavior is one of the main defining forces in the United States today. If you happen to live in a “blue state,” and you’ve suffered a disaster, whether it’s a tornado or hurricane, an epidemic, a wildfire, you’re a fool if you think that the federal government is going to help you, and you’re only marginally better off if you live in the Deep South where racism and ignorance is the law of the land and almost all voters love Trump.
Tagged with: Why Favor Red States
How to Recognize BS
Have you ever wondered how to spot a fake, even if you’re not trained in science? Here’s a good example.
Solar PV is ~25% efficient. 12 times that is 300%. So this device outputs 3 times more energy than what came into it??
Most of today’s kids who are old enough to swim and ride a bicycle understand that this is total crap.
Tagged with: How to Recognize BS
Is His Ignorance the Most Disgusting Feature of this Guy? Sadly, No.
I wrote a post earlier today in which I pointed out that the level of ignorance on the part of this former state senator from Pennsylvania is truly staggering. Yet that’s not the most revolting aspect of his character.
IMO, it’s his intellectual arrogance. He knows that there are thousands of people who have been studying the causes of global warming and the various possible ways of dealing with it since the subject of climate change came on the scene in earnest in the late 1970s. Instead of simply learning from the scientists, like you and I do every day, he said, in essence: “I don’t give a s***. I have invented my own ideas, even though the slowest high school student would find them laughably stupid, and I aim to foist them off as valid.”
Blatant dishonesty is far worse than ignorance, in my view.
Tagged with: better education
Brits on Brexit
In any given month, I meet an average of three or four Brits, and I can’t remember a single one who thought Brexit was a good idea for the country.
Now, keep in mind that I’m not meeting the typical Brit; the people I come across are generally highly educated folks, wealthy enough to enjoy travel internationally.
According to what I’m told, those who favor Brexit are their equivalent of the MAGA Trump supporter, i.e., ignorant racists who welcomed Brexit for its capacity to block immigration.
Better Education? Sure, But There Is a Limit as to What It Can Accomplish
There is no doubt that the United States needs a much stronger educational system, though, as a practical matter, what we need even more is a voter base that refuses to elect the most ignorant people imaginable.
Tagged with: better education
Investing in Climate Change Mitigation
As much as I favor environmental sustainability, there is nothing in the meme here that I agree with.
Investors must treat the crisis as an economy-wide threat? No. Investors have money, and they can use it however and wherever they think will do them the most good, whether that means monetary profit or the satisfaction of doing what’s good for the world, or some combination of the two.
The investment world hasn’t responded decisively? Again, no. Think of all the money that’s going into decarbonizing our transportation and energy sectors. That means alternative fuel (especially electric) cars and trucks, renewable energy, and nuclear.
It’s all fairly impressive, especially considering that the fossil fuels industries essentially own the U.S. law-making processes. This group of gargantuan corporations are ~125 years old, enormously profitable, and receive 7+ trillion dollars (worldwide) of subsidies annually. They use our atmosphere are their own private sewer, and no one even thinks about asking them to pay to clean up after themselves.
$7 trillion is a lot of money, regardless of your standard, which makes the article linked above from the International Monetary Fund worth your time.
Another issue here is improving our use of land, which basically translates into moving away from beef, so as to enable us to stop destroying the Amazon rainforest. As anyone could have guessed, however, the financial pressures here are analogous to those in fossil fuels, where the industry is putting a full-court press against plant-based and lab-grown meat, and has declared an all-out PR war.
Taking into consideration the economic pressures being applied by the industry incumbents, clean tech is actually doing fairly well. But will its progress be sufficient to avert catastrophe?
No one knows.
Maybe the answer depends on how people like you and me react and get involved.
Tagged with: Investing in Climate Change Mitigation
Is Solar PV Replacing Farmland?
It pains me to think that I live among Americans who are this stupid. This country has 880 million acres of farmland, and 34,000 acres of solar PV. That’s a ratio of 26K:1.
In addition, farmland doesn’t need to be “replaced.” Here’s an AI piece on agrisolar, also known as agrivoltaics,
….. the practice of combining solar power and agriculture in the same landscape. Solar panels can be placed between crops, above them, or on greenhouses. This can provide space for grazing, crops, and native habitats, while also producing energy. Agrisolar can have many benefits, including: water conservation, soil health, crop yield, and pollinator habitat.
Tagged with: Is Solar PV Replacing Farmland?
Trump Is a Class Act
The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz notes: If this comment doesn’t cinch the Peace Prize for him the Nobels are rigged.
Tagged with: Trump Is a Class Act
