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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a quick summary of the two major U.S. political parties’ main focus going into the presidential elections in November:

Republicans want to keep it simple: The only issues that matter to American voters are inflation and the security of the southern border, and Trump is the only person who can fix these things.

Democrats talk about a broader picture: Inflation and the security of the southern border are both important.  The U.S. is experiencing the lowest inflation of the G7 countries, and Republicans are going out of their way to stop any progress that the Biden administration is making re: the border. In any case, anyone who believes that “only Trump can fix …. (anything)” is a moron.

In addition, there are many other critically important issues, e.g., women’s rights, continued job growth, organized labor, and mitigating environmental collapse.

One more thing: Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, and is under indictment at both the state and federal level for attempting to overthrow the U.S. government.  

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a conversation between my daughter Valerie and me that I thought some readers might appreciate.

She recently gave birth to my wife’s and my first grandchild, and she’s trying to take off a bit of weight.  She knows that I normally don’t eat higher on the food-chain than fish, but she wanted to tell me what she was having for dinner:

Val: It’s boneless and skinless chicken.

Me: But is it chickenless?

Val: LOL!!!

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Are these machines “popping up around the U.S.?”

No.

Indeed, they are appearing in Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma, but how well do you think they would fare in blue or even purple states?

Imagine a grocery store selling munitions for AR-15s in the most populated part of California, New York, or Massachusetts.   They’d be out of business within a few days, as patrons would refuse to step through the door of such establishments.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In a call I had last night with my mom, a lifelong Republican, she repeated the talking point we hear so often in today’s ferocious political climate: “dial down the rhetoric.” In this case, she was referring specifically to me and my oft-used description of the former president: “criminal sociopath.”

Obviously, Trump stands to gain if Democrats would cease pointing out that he is under indictments at both the federal and state levels for trying to overthrow the U.S. government, that he is an adjudicated rapist and convicted felon.  Yet I’m not sure these are examples of “rhetoric” per se; they seem more like simple news items, like the Dodgers beat the Braves 3 – 1 or the Dow was down 100 points in today’s close on Wall Street.  

Now, is he a “criminal sociopath” as I and many other Americans believe?  Indeed, that’s an opinion and not a scientific finding, as it’s not up to environmental writers or car salesmen to make that call, but rather to neurologists and psychiatrists.  On the other hand, it’s an opinion that’s held by a great number of American voters, as we’re all going to learn in November. Whatever his precise clinical condition, his re-election, at least indicted by his own statements, represents the end to U.S. democracy.

Most of us stand adamantly in opposition.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Apparently, the content of the meme here is true, but the rationale remains unclear.  Reports have cited that the measure was taken to protect Italy’s live (soon-to-be-slaughtered) beef  industry.

I wonder why it’s the province of government to tell us what we can and cannot eat.  The plant-based meat industry in the United States is not strong, but our constitution will not support a ban on the sale and consumption of Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, or even demonstrably useless dietary supplements.

Here’s a reader who agrees: People are amazing to me. Why on Earth does anyone care what others want to eat? I don’t think I would eat lab grown meat, but why do I care if someone else does? It seems like a decent idea to alleviate some issues with the raising of livestock. I just wish people could mind their own business more when it comes to things that won’t affect them. Alas, wanting to control others, a true sign of weakness.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m with what Bernie Sanders said here 100%; Biden’s done a fantastic job in many different respects.

I would only add the proviso that I’ll go with whatever choice Democratic leadership makes in order to assure that Trump is defeated.

We’ll have other chances to achieve this significant environmental and social progress; we will not have another chance to retain American democracy in the face of an extremely powerful and evil man.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I completely sympathize with this young person; I wouldn’t like my fellow drivers to think I’m a hard-core, anti-union Trumper.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The meme here is spot on, but let’s be honest:

Do you think the typical Republican evangelical is likely to come across this?

Even if he did, would he care?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability
Here’s a discussion between two people from my boyhood, whom I won’t identify by name, and whose comments I did not edit.
Old acquaintance 1: Guns, aren’t the problem, cars, alcohol, drugs, kill way many more people. Let’s talk the truth here it’s people that are the problem. How they are brought up , their mentality what they’re saying on the TV which in many cases is nothing but hatred you can call it like it is and this is the fact.
Old acquaintance 2:  If an individual goes crazy, wants to hurt someone and has a rock, he might hurt someone badly. If he has a gun, people will die. Yes the problem is people, let’s not allow them the weapons to deal with their sick solution.
The discussion makes me wonder how people in France or Japan or Croatia frame this discussion.  I’m thinking that perhaps we in the U.S. have too many (barely literate) people like old acquaintance #1 to be able to deal with our problems intelligently, and that perhaps we’re doomed to remain stuck in neutral when it comes to issues like public safety.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

This from right-wing TV anchor Candace Owens:

‘Listen. I’m not a flat-earther. I’m not a round-earther.’ Actually, what I am is, I am somebody who has left the cult of science. I have left the megachurch of science because what I have now realized is that science—what it is actually, if you think about it—is a pagan faith.”

Fortunately, very few people perceive science in this way, but I guess if you’re going to hold yourself out as one of the most prominent members of the U.S. right-wing political spokespeople, you’re essentially forced to go in this direction.  Accepting science as the best way of gaining an understanding of the world around us is not an option; it’s for woke liberals.  Moreover, calling science a “pagan faith” is not going to cost you one red cent in terms of your following of American idiots.

A few hundred years ago, some poor guy suggested that the stars in the sky might be other suns around which planets like ours orbited; he was promptly burned at the stake.  And going to that level of stupidity and cruelty may very well lie in our collective futures.

Whether or not this becomes a reality lies in precisely one thing: how seriously we as a civilization accept the viewpoints of morons like Candace Owens.  Our future lies exactly here.

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