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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

How does one feed 100K people daily?

Most of us have made dinner for, say 20 guests.  Multiply that by 50,000 and–bingo–you have arrived at the scale at which these Sikh chefs are doing here in New Delhi, India.

An infinitesimally small part of our culture in the United States is involved in taking care of those least able to take care of themselves.   And what exists of it is being beaten out of the public sector, as an entire political party is desperate to dismantle as many government programs as it can get its cruel hands on.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

“Justice Thomas is compromised,” says Massachusetts junior senator and consumer activist Edward Markey.

“Compromised” puts it mildly; as we’ve come to learn, he’s a career criminal.

There is one aspect to all this that has me a bit befuddled, though, and that is the Justices of the Supreme Court are somehow not bound to a particular code of ethics.  OK, but aren’t they bound to the U.S. Criminal Code?  To the code of the American Bar Association?

We have laws that make bribery a crime.  Let’s simply use them to remove Clarence Thomas from the SCOTUS and send him to prison.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There are so many tragedies unfolding around us that stem from the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in 2016.  Many of these derive from the revelation that a huge swath of the American public is profoundly stupid, and, as such, are ripe targets to be fleeced by clever criminals who understand that “a fool and his money are soon parted,” at least according to Aesop.

From this:  On Wednesday, Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan sentenced WeBuildTheWall founder Brian Kolfage to four years and three months in prison for pocketing donations that were made by gullible, hateful morons who trusted the organization to build a 2200-mile wall across the southern border of the U.S.  His co-conspirator, Andrew Badolato, will be serving three years.

The fate of Steve Bannon, who also heavily involved, remains unclear.  He was sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress, but he remains free.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

What former Republican U.S. representative Joe Walsh says here echoes what most Democrats believe.  Would we like to have a candidate who’s younger, more vibrant, and less prone to gaffes in his speaking?  Of course.

What we don’t want, and will not accept, however, is a criminal conman who tried to overthrow the United States government.

I’m reminded of the talk around the 2020 election.  When people said that the Democrats needed a platform that was more than “We’re Not Trump,” I replied, “I’m not too sure about that.”

We had seen Trump impeached twice, and it was clear that he was guilty of fraud, tax evasion, extortion, and witness intimidation–not to mention his more than 30,000 lies/deceptive statements issued while he was in office.  This, of course, was before the incitement, seditious conspiracy, treason, and theft of classified documents came along.

If the Democrats nominate my gardener, he’d beat Trump in the general election.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Re: the meme here, sorry to say, but that doesn’t matter.  It could be 90+% (like the percentage of Americans who favor universal background checks for prospective gun owners) and that wouldn’t matter either.

The only think that counts here is that our lawmakers are in the pockets of the gun industry.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

That’s as may be.  But, spelling aside, do you know what would concern the hell out of me?  Taking investment advice from the professional liars at the ultra-right-wing “news” sources.  Before his ouster from Fox News, Tucker Carlson was also hawking investments in precious metals.

I’m wondering how many baby boomers with elderly parents are worried about the safety of what will soon be their inheritances.  Are dear old mom and dad following the advice of people who spread disinformation for a living?  That’s not exactly what I’d call “peace of mind.”

And if that doesn’t scare you, imagine you’re an investor in Fox Corp. itself.  Not only did you take a 6% haircut the other day, but your company now faces a $2.7 billion damages claim for defamation, this one from Smartmatic, whose attorneys will be taking the same tack that forced Fox to settle the Dominion case out of court for a cool three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Hmmmm.  Wait a second here.  How much money does Fox actually have?  It’s possible that we may soon see Fox News belly-up. That won’t end the GOP’s assault on U.S. democracy, but it’s one heck of a good start.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

We’re all looking for reasons why Tucker Carlson got whacked from Fox News.  Here’s yet another theory that doesn’t ring true.

Reader Dolly Lindley notes about the video below:  It occurred to me almost immediately when I heard about Tucker, that he was the only newsperson being very vocal about Big Pharma and Psych Drugs being present at all the shootings and violence. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In his campaign for the 2024 presidency, Donald Trump has announced that he won’t be participating in the debates leading up to the Republican nomination. He didn’t say why not, but let’s apply a little common sense here.

How would Trump fare in a stage filled with political opponents, each of which will be pointing out that the former president is a criminal?  That he attempted to overthrow the U.S. federal government?  That now we have complete proof that there was no significant amount of voter fraud?  That it’s very likely that he would have to run the country from a federal prison?

That, dear reader, is what’s referred to as a s***-show.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Baby-boomers recall a day when being a Republican was equivalent to the statement: “I have mine.  Everyone else can go to hell.” There really is nothing to like about that, at least for people with a sense of decency and morality.

Yet fast-forward to the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency.  Now these people are living in a cult of ignorance, and, in many cases, paying for it with their lives.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The college professor quoted here believes the correct answer to the question in the headline above is the latter of the two possibilities offered, and I agree.

Immanuel Kant’s concept of the categorical imperative (i.e., a moral statement that always needs to be followed, regardless of our desires) is a restatement of the golden rule, and translates from the German as “act only in accordance with rules of conduct that you would declare to be universal laws.”

From Columbia University:  In lay terms, this simply means that if you do an action, then everyone else should also be able to do it.

Now, that Kant wrote this is a fact.  I read it with my own eyes.  It’s not the interpretation of some bearded Marxist somewhere; it’s an important part of the history of Western philosophy.

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