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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There are two schools of thought here.  America will be a stronger country if:

1) Kids are taught the truth about our nation’s history, learn to think for themselves, and come to their own conclusions about what we’ve done  both right and wrong.  This will put our children in a solid position to do what they can to make the United States a better place to live.

If you want to live in North Korea, where all this is impossible, be my guest.

2) We ban controversial books, force kids to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and read the bible, and edit out the parts of our history that are unflattering to rich white people and evangelical Christians.

Your call, America.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It appears that approximately 10% of the working poor who are slated to lose their healthcare coverage via the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” are from Louisiana.

This deep-red southern state has a dearth of billionaires, but it has a bumper crop of poor folks whose lives are soon to be made even more miserable.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

First of all, the proposal shown at left won’t happen.

More to the point, what a tragedy it is that the world is being subjected to this, 10 years after the agreement with Iran was finalized in Vienna among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)—China, France, Russia, the U.K., U.S.—plus Germany together with the European Union.

Trump’s interested in a Nobel Peace Prize.  Is it possible that he could stop provoking international war?

Perhaps the way forward to the Prize is to stop tearing up peace agreements like this one and cease threating to annex, via military force as required, Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.  The support of Ukraine would be an extra bonus.  The cessation of tariff-driven trade wars would be the cherry on top.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

To the reader who sent this to me for comment:

1) Re: President Biden locking down the country, from an AI Summary:
Biden’s administration implemented a comprehensive strategy for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic that focused on vaccination, testing, masking, and supporting businesses and individuals. He repeatedly stated that a nationwide lockdown was not necessary, and that he would “shut down the virus, not the economy.”
Instead of a complete shutdown, the Biden administration emphasized a localized approach, with restrictions calibrated based on the threat level in each community. They also focused on increasing vaccine availability and administering doses, providing resources for businesses and individuals affected by the pandemic, and supporting efforts to keep schools open for in-person learning. 
2) Re: Kamala Harris’ not going through a primary:
Throughout the history of the U.S. presidency, there have been many times that people ran for the office where the incumbent either died or became incapacitated.  A fairly recent example is LBJ.  Maybe a refresher on U.S. history would be of benefit here.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here are a couple of comments on the story at left:

My wife and I owned a horse-breeding ranch when we were younger, and virtually all our employees were Latinos.  There is no question that these folks are by-and-large honest, family-oriented, and extremely hard-working people.

The fellow telling the story is the typical Trump supporter, in that in order for something in our society to be deemed “bad,” it has to happen to them. People being arrested by armed, faceless kidnappers and deported to torture-prisons while their little children are swept away didn’t seem bad at all–until these gross violations of human rights and international law affected his business.

The line “I might have f***ed up” is actually kind of funny. Pal, you f***ed up the moment you voted for an overtly racist criminal sociopath to lead what was once a great nation.

We’re at approximately the one-eighth mark through Trump’s second presidency.  We actually do see a diminution in his support, perhaps due to the epiphanies of folks with construction companies who need honest workers.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If I had to pick a virtue that the president has none of, “decency” is as good as any.

Other valid choices include class, honor, trustworthiness, empathy/kindness, fairness/sense of justice, responsibility, sense of loyalty, and regard for the well-being of others.

As a reminder, the United States has never had a truly terrible human being in the White House; this is uncharted territory.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This period of American history will never be forgotten, as much as we wish it could be.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

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.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

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.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

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.

 

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