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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics
Here’s something from the Chris Christie campaign:
Chris Christie has made it very clear—there is only one “lane” to the White House, and it is THROUGH Donald Trump.  We all know Christie is the only person who will TELL IT LIKE IT IS, demand the truth, and expose Donald Trump’s many flaws on the debate stage.
What amuses me about this is the phrase “expose Donald Trump’s many flaws.”  If you’re really “telling it like it is,” you need to replace that with something like: “demand that Donald Trump be tried, convicted, and incarcerated for trying to overthrow the U.S. government.”
Sadly, there is not a single Republican who is anywhere close to the debate podium who will say that.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

If you can be convinced that anything about these people’s claims is true, by all means, jump in with both feet.

One such claim is that they generate some energy at wind speeds that are lower than those that activate conventional turbines.  That happens to be false, but even if it were true, would it matter, when the power generated from wind is proportional to the cube of its velocity?

Wind speeds of 20 MPH generate 8000 times more power than speeds of 1 MPH.  Could it possibly matter what happens in nearly calm air?

Again, if you have no understanding of high school physics, this could be the deal you’ve been waiting for. Eventually, its proponents are going to prison, and you’re going to lose your investment.  Which one will happen first remains to be seen.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I fully detest the Republican party, but I disagree that it can’t be reformed; in fact, I don’t see any scenario in which it won’t be.

Who knows what will work for the GOP, but it’s certain what is bound for failure: racism, homophobia, the rejection of science, the proliferation of assault weapons, support for Russia in Ukraine, and bans of books and abortion are chief among them.  It’s true that there are deep red states that eat this garbage up with a spoon, but all these platforms are extremely unpopular with the vast majority of Americans.

So what happens when the Republicans get annihilated in 2024 because decent, educated Americans revile them and vote accordingly?  Reform is the only answer.  Find a way to add real value to voters’ lives.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A great deal can happen between now and the time the Democratic National Convention gets underway next summer. In particular, Biden’s advancing years may cause him to do something that renders him nonviable as his party’s candidate for the 2024 presidential run.

Having said that, he’s doing so much for the common American on a great number of different fronts that it’s hard to imagine that he won’t have the support of women, racial and religious minorities, parents of school kids, LGBTQs, as well as most blue-collar workers.

Inflation is coming down, and the job market is exploding.

That’s ignoring the fact that Trump’s backing is slowly evaporating as the federal and state justice system brings him ever closer to prison.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

OK, now let’s multiply that by ~50 million Trump supporters, and see what that does to our security.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A few years ago I met a woman who told me that she was scheduled to speak at a business convention in Las Vegas, but cancelled her engagement when she learned that the venue was the Trump International Hotel. “To get me to enter that building, I would need to be held at gunpoint,” she said.

There are plenty of people who feel the same way about the entire state of Florida (and Texas).

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

An old classmate of mine asks, “Doesn’t Trump get some credit for Israel? The current lunatic favors Iran.”

Re: the U.S. policy on the Middle East, I don’t know enough to address your question.  I’ve read, from Canada-based CTV  News, rated and unbiased/neutral, “Trump is not pro-Israel; he’s pro-Trump.”  That rings true, but again, I’m not your guy here.

However, I do note that you seem to be a garden-variety Trump supporter, and, accordingly, you appear to have overlooked the fact that the former president is a cold, calculating criminal who a) represents a huge risk to national security, and b) tried to overthrow the U.S. government.

To me, if he happens to deserve credit for some aspect of what he did when he was in office, that’s negligible in comparison to his status as a traitor to his country.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability
My #1 thought about American education is that Ben Carson can only worsen it further.
A reader, Margaret Morris, asks: How do you improve education?
I respond: Though I’m not an expert, here are three ideas.
1) Proper funding for teachers’ salaries.
2) Keep teachers (and students) safe from being murdered due to the proliferation of assault weapons in the hands of the mentally ill.
3) Stop threating teachers with removal if they don’t conform to what the ultra-right-wing thinks about re: race, sexuality, and other Republican hot-button political issues.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Many conservatives are upset that only liberal ideas are presented on college campuses. My view:

As in most cases, this is a gray issue.

If you take, for example, the subject of affirmative action, which is as alive today as it was when it arose in the late 1960s, you have, IMO, a decent topic for debate on a college campus.  Conservatives will say that they (those living today) had nothing to do with slavery, that modern America is under no obligation to integrate the descendants of slaves in society, and that any governmental action taken to swing wealth from rich whites to poor blacks is essentially robbery.   Progressives will claim that, based on the way that wealth in the United States was established, and given that we continue to live in a land in which systemic racism is the rule of the day, that affirmative action is ethically required.  Colleges wanting to present these ideas can, and I think should, offer both sides a platform on which to present their viewpoints.

Re: the rest of “conservative values,” it really comes down to what you mean.  If you want someone to come on campus and say, without any basis in fact, that the 2020 election was stolen, that the FBI is corrupt, and that Donald Trump is the true U.S. president you have a problem.

I’m even more concerned about matters of science.  If I wanted to go back to my alma mater and make a play for climate denialism, or the flat Earth, or the lack of efficacy of vaccinations, the science departments would laugh me off the campus, and I think they have the right—and obligation—to do exactly that.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In its quest to generate and retain our attention, the American news media continues to remind us that Trump could be re-elected U.S. president in 2024.  As proof they offer the fact that he’s far ahead in the polls taken of Republicans.

But what threat does he actually pose to win the general election–even supposing that his legal situation doesn’t continue to bring him closer to prison? I agree with the analysis of the former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who believes, in essence, that we need to consider that Democrats form a (slight) majority of voters, and, on top of that, we must add in all the third-party registrants and independents, as well as a significant number of Republicans who will refuse to vote for a career criminal who clearly tried to overthrow the government.

It’s just not possible.

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