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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

At left is a reference to Trump’s amazing ability to convince his supporters of things that couldn’t possibly be true.

Has the price of gasoline really fallen below $2 per gallon?  Well, we could take a short drive and look for ourselves. Or we could go online and check out websites that track the average price of gas in real time to one tenth of a penny.

Hey, wait! I have a better idea.  We could believe the unbelievable, simply because Trump says so.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Many Americans are wondering about the content of the meme here. Why exactly are Trump’s picks for important governmental positions so blatantly disqualified?

Take Pete Hegseth as an example.  Did Trump choose him specifically because he’s an alcoholic and former Fox News anchor, or is that just some baggage that came along with a supremely loyal secretary of defense?

The same question could be asked about any of the others.  RFK Jr. is another fine example.  Did Trump specifically want a recovering heroin addict and QAnon-style antivaxxer to be in charge of Americans’ health, or was that just something that came along with absolute loyalty to the would-be king?

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

The cartoonist here makes an excellent point.

In geologic time, it was just a few minutes ago that we were living in tribes, eating mastodon meat, and sleeping in caves.  A few seconds ago, we had the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials.

Yet we think we can throw a switch, understand quantum entanglement, and live in peace with all the peoples of the Earth. Perhaps we’re asking too much of ourselves.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓
The author of the meme here writes:
Bernie is right. Under Trump, Americans are relearning the lesson we learned about the oligarchy during the Gilded Age of the late 1890s, when robber barons ran the government and the economy for their own benefit: Oligarchy is incompatible with the common good.
All American progressives love Bernie Sanders, but does he have this right here?  First of all, what percentage of U.S. voters, especially of those of Trump’s base, could define terms like “Gilded Age” and “Robber Barons?”
In truth, there is no evidence that Americans are learning a goddamn thing about how our history informs our understanding about what’s going on here.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage — No Comments ↓

Sodium-ion batteries have been around for about 30 years, and there are people who believe that a handful of developers may be close to commercializing this class of technologies.

That said, if you have to tell us that your investment opportunity is “not vapor,” guess what we infer?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change — No Comments ↓

Of course the Trump administration will do anything in its power to bury the discussion about climate change and its terrible costs.

But in the case of the shut-down of NOAA, we’re talking about the hard, direct costs like rebuilding after fires and hurricanes.

The long-term costs in terms of loss of land mass, displaced populations, wars fought over increasingly scarce resources, and the disease and deaths associated with pathogens released by melting permafrost are terrifying, but are impossible to pin down.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

The most tragic part of life in the United States is that about half of Americans have become indifferent to the truth of a certain statement, if it comes from Trump or one of his lackeys.

If you or I had made a public statement to the effect that Haitians were eating Ohioans’ pets, our credibility would have been immediately and irremediably destroyed.

Turn that same situation around and have that assertion come from Trump or Vance, and it’s eaten up with a spoon.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science — 1 Comment ↓

In a recent post about the meme at left, entitled It’s OK to be Ignorant, Just Keep it to Yourself, I wrote “If you agree, you’re ignorant when it comes to biology.”

This type of stupidity has a fantastic level of appeal to the common MAGA Trump supporter.  They’re thrilled that there is a simple statement that backs up their bigotry, and they have no concern whatsoever that it’s anti-scientific.

Below are a few words on the subject from an actual biologist:

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — 1 Comment ↓

These folks write:  Clean Energy Powers Homes and Lowers Energy Bills in America. Encourage President Trump to support Clean Energy Tax Credits that Power America.

When I first saw this, I thought it was a joke, but no, they’re totally serious.  They do face a number of challenges, however, including:

1) Trump couldn’t care less about the wellbeing, financial or otherwise, of the common American.

2) The money that powers Trump’s presidency comes from two groups: extremely wealthy ultra-conservative donors and tens of millions of the hateful and uneducated MAGA base, both of which abhor the idea of phasing out fossil fuels in favor of clean energy.

3) When it comes to taxation, Trump has exactly one concept in mind: Tax breaks are for billionaires, not American families.  Does anyone believe the president wants government to invest tax dollars into making our citizenry comfortable?

My advice: petition the devil to install air conditioning in hell.  You’ll have the same level of success.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles — No Comments ↓

There is no law that says you can’t do what Santa Claus on the left says he’s doing.  The challenge, however, is that a 1000 Watt solar PV array will take 16 days to charge the typical Tesla with its 100-KW-hour battery.  If that sounds like an appealing idea, go for it.

 

 

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