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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Most people find it hard to believe that they live among folks who are so unprincipled that they are willing to inflict great harm on others, simply because they get fabulously rich whatever process is at stake, whether that’s selling cigarettes or incinerating the planet.

We may or may not prove successful in phasing out fossil fuels.  But if we are, it will be due to some combination of market forces, government regulation, and public awareness and concern.  It will have nothing whatsoever to do with any form of conscience on the part of Big Oil.

If that doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what to tell you.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I love the sentiment here, but this is not an accurate depiction of the situation in which humankind finds itself.  In particular, there never was a time at which we considered ourselves brothers and sisters, etc.

Recently, the theory of anthropology that explains how our opposable thumbs catapulted our species forward changed from:

We were able to scoop out the protein-rich foodstuffs from shellfish and the like, thus increasing the size of our brains and ultimately enabling our dominance over the lower creatures, to:

We were the only species that was able to grasp clubs and spears, so as to murder one another.

In fact, many of our scientists believe that humankind is in an evolutionary cul-de-sac, where we find ourselves with too much technology, too little education, and too much hate and fear coursing in the chemistry of our “big brains.”

Perhaps this is a cynical viewpoint, but keep in mind that, nearly one quarter through the 21st Century, almost half of the people living in the most advanced country on Earth believe that Donald Trump was sent from God to make America great again.  I have to admit: that could be a death knell.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I mentioned this tweet by Sean Spicer when I came across it on December 7th, and I pointed out that he has confused Dday in 1944 with Pearl Harbor Day in 1941.

I just saw this again and realized that he doesn’t seem to know what the word infamy means.  Maybe someone will give him a dictionary for Christmas.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Below is a Christmas cartoon from 1974.  To me, what makes it worth mentioning is that 50 years ago, most Americans could have recited this passage from H.D. Thoreau from memory, where today, just half a century into the great “dumbing down,” most of us have at best a vague idea as to who he even was.

And so here we are.  Trump wants to throw out the Constitution?  Seems like a good idea to me…..

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I cringe when I hear someone say that Trump is an idiot.

Yes, we hear the former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson say, “He’s a “f***ing moron,” and any of the dozens of similar epithets thrown at him by the people most closely connected to him, but it seems clear that the former president’s major mental defect is not stupidity, but the inability to see what’s good for him for more than an hour or two into the future.

And here we have the latest scandal: entertaining people at Mar-a-Lago whose views are directly antithetical to the vast majority of Americans.

About dining with “Ye” and Nick Fuentes, he must have had a thought: “these people are celebrities, and they like me, and I desperately want to surround myself with folks like this.”  Of course they like you, and of course they make you feel good, but these peoples’ values are repulsive to most of the U.S. electorate, and thus, this tactic is a solid loser.

An even stronger case could be made about Trump’s call to abandon the Constitution.  Even the imbeciles who form his base understand that “free speech” and “the right to bear arms” lie at the very core of the United States.

Perhaps what I’m saying is that where he falls down is in math.  His narcissism cuts him off from the concept that he is despised by a huge majority of U.S. voters, a group that’s growing larger by the hour.

And the stakes couldn’t be higher.  We’re not talking about failing to get the 2024  GOP nomination; we’re talking about dying in federal prison.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Nowadays one never knows when the “party of law and order” is going to show the world how completely insincere it is, here, by showing no support of the police who protected them during the January 6th insurrection.

Whatever is required to keep Donald Trump in office, including supporting his committing treason, is just fine with Republicans, at least insofar as the party is currently constituted.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

My wife is decorating our Christmas tree in advance of a party we’re hosting tomorrow evening.  My job is putting on music of the season to keep her in the mood as she picks out the ornaments and arranges them to her pleasure.

Not too difficult a task, with many boxes of balls and lights collected over a period of almost three decades, reminding us of our two now-grown children and all those beautiful memories.

And it’s especially poignant, considered in the context of the meme here.

The blessing of Christmas is, in its essence, taking care of one another.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It hasn’t been a good couple of years for felons who identify as Republican.

In particular, they’re loading up our prisons.

OMG, does this guy look the part, or what?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A reader reports: I ordered six weeks ago still nothing still nothing – paid for still nothing – regretting my order.

Another: I got nothing, not even an email.

The sheer volume of cash plucked from gullible Trump supporters is hard to fathom. They’re the perfect prey for grifters, including, of course, the King of the Grift himself.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you’ll pardon this woman’s French, she actually makes a good point.

The Republicans are the party of hate, and that’s about it.  But while this is quite appealing to many uneducated Americans, at least today, there simply aren’t enough of them to make this a winning platform on a national basis.

What gets you elected in Oklahoma, e.g., white supremacy or forcing a 10-year-old rape victim to carry her fetus to term, is not going to win country-wide.

One has to think that, with Trump out of the way, most likely via incarceration, the GOP will rethink its strategy and figure out a way to add actual value to voters’ lives, other than the thrill that hateful morons derive from watching pain being inflicted on everyone except straight white males.

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