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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Biden administration enacted the strictest-ever rules for tailpipe emissions but also handed the auto industry a significant concession by giving them more time to comply, a recognition that the transition to electric cars will take longer than hoped.

This conforms with the sense most of us have about the transition away gas and diesel in favor of electric transportation: it’s informed by a warm (but not red hot) consumer demand, as well as fierce resistance from the fossil fuel industry.

Speaking of demand, I saw a bumper sticker on an older Ford Mustang the other day that read, “This car is a hybrid.  It burns gas and rubber.” The rednecks of the world are using this opportunity to ridicule the suffering on the 8 billion citizens of Earth who are experiencing floods, droughts, loss of land mass, etc.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

…. seems to have dried up.

Perhaps this is explained by the famous line that actor George C. Scott delivered in his 1970 film portrayal of “Patton”:  “American loves a winner, and America will not tolerate a loser.  The very thought of losing is hateful to America.”

After all this time, it looks like we’ve arrived at a point where his richest constituents have come to regard Trump as a loser, and by this I do not mean that he’s a lost soul, devoid of integrity and character.  That much is certainly true, but these people couldn’t possibly care less about their hero’s ethics and decency.  I mean “lower” in the sense of his flagging wealth, and that, in addition, he faces the prospect of losing his freedom as well.

It appears that big money has no further appetite for investment in a man who simply appears to be falling off a cliff.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Most American women who live within, say, 25 miles of downtown anywhere are educated and career-oriented.  They deeply resent the Republicans’ far-right position on abortion, and oppose most of the other principles of Trumpism, e.g., white nationalism, the rejection of science, and the Big Lie.

This is why they helped Biden win by 7 million votes in 2020, a margin that can only be expected to widen in 2024.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson puts it, photos like the one here are evidence that we live in a country with a) free speech and b) failed education.

Here, you’re free to believe in things like the flat Earth, chemtrails, the Big Lie, climate change as a hoax, Dr. Fauci working to destroy the U.S. economy, and Bill Gates enslaving the world’s people.

Fortunately, the rest of us are free to regard you as the nut-jobs you are, and to minimize your effect on organized society.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

There has been much discussion concerning the relationship between educational levels and political leanings.  There is no doubt, for instance, that one is more likely to encounter a Trump supporter running a hardware store in rural Mississippi than teaching cardiology in a university hospital in Massachusetts.

Let’s grant that there is a strong correlation here; after all, Trump says that he “loves the uneducated.” But is there causation?  Does education actively reduce the tendency to adopt Trumpist principles?

I’ll end this here and hope for a few comments that attempt to answer the matter.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The numbers at left re-enforce my belief that Lincoln should have accepted the secession of the Confederacy in 1861, telling them:

So long.  Sorry your slaves will have to suffer, but it won’t be long until you, a pariah nation, simply implodes from things like lack of innovation and trading partners.  By 1870, a few small gangs of Mexican banditos will come across the border and blow you fools to bits.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics
Retired news journalist Dan Rather notes: Momentum appears to have moved in the direction of Biden/Harris. But with the election still months away, we need to remind ourselves that everyone who cares about the country needs to pay attention and get involved.
I would say that the momentum is shifting away from Trump, though, of course, these are equivalent statements.
My sense is that anyone who believes that Biden has performed admirably in terms of the economy, gun control, renewable energy, banking regulation, drug prices, etc. has long since come to that realization.
By contrast, the steady drumbeat about Trump and his crimes seems to be slowly eroding his support.  So what if these people are, in fact, deplorable in their character?  They’re nonetheless human beings, and their behavior is therefore, at some level, predictable.  Some of them are getting sick of the Big Lie and hearing the utter crap concerning their hero’s persecution by the Justice Department, the Deep State, and whatever other hobgoblins they believe are pestering the former president.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I had to laugh when I saw this, and how illustrative it is of the conditions of abject stupidity in which this country lives right now.

Sure, all presidential campaigns seek to make the differences between a candidate and his opponent as clear as possible, even if that means exaggeration.

But seriously?  He won’t be a dictator?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Is someone suggesting that there should be some factual accuracy in what Trump says?

If he’s proven anything since his arrival on the U.S. political scene, it’s that lies are just as good as the truth in the minds of his supporters.

It sure will be good to get through this ghastly period in our nation’s history.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics
America could never warm up to Hillary, though this never made sense to most of us.  “What exactly don’t you like about her?” we’d ask.
A reader notes: What a loss for America when we lost her as POTUS.  And got satan instead.
True.  Think about where we’d be right now in terms of things like environmental and social justice.  Think of what our news stories would be about.
Would Russia have been emboldened to attack Ukraine?
Mostly, of course, we wouldn’t be teetering on the edge of authoritarianism, centered around a man with tens of millions of heavily armed hateful white nationalists in support.
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