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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Protesters outside Capitol-Francis Chung/E&E News

A week or so ago, I wrote, “At this point, we must believe that the United States appears to have survived this attack.”  Not everyone agreed, however.  Some responses:

 • The attack is ongoing and whether it survives is very much up in the air.
 • Not really, Craig. The coup is still in progress. Every time he says the election was stolen he is advancing the coup.
 • Yes it did. But I would love to see some laws changed to make it a lot harder if there is a next time.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Just getting back from Hawaii, visiting my aging mom.

She asked me to run her by Home Depot to pick up a few succulents and some potting soil, which I didn’t mind doing even though I personally don’t spend a dime there because of their enormous support for Trump.

Here’s something I learned about Home Depot as a representative of a large class of corporate employers, and the socioeconomics of our times. Since the pandemic, they have lost 100 employees–in that one store alone, on Kauai, Hawaii.

Now they’re hiring, but the only job offerings are part-time, perhaps 20 hours per week, enabling them so they can avoid paying any worker benefits. They don’t want one fulltime employee who will enjoy a secure position; they want two part time workers both of whom they can oppress with pending starvation.

These employees will be working 20 hours per week X 4 weeks/month X perhaps $15 per hour = $1200 per month minus taxes, where monthly rents for a room in a shared house are maybe $1000.

Enter the world of disinformation where the narrative here is “No one wants to work anymore.” We’ve all heard it.

One needs to congratulate the corporate world for its unbridled success in PR here. They’re starving their employees, while making it appear that the problem is the worker’s laziness. Kudos.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

What will California look like when a massive glacier melts?

Well, it depends on which one, doesn’t it?

In truth, the melting of each of our glaciers is a dynamic affair, one we’re learning more about each year.

Nothing about this subject looks comforting, but there is certainly no predictable formula to describe the line from this point in time until that at which most of the coastal cities are under water.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s just one more voice from history calling forward in time, instructing us how to deal with the attempt to overthrow the United States government.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Here’s an interesting perspective from author, political activist, and social justice advocate Naomi Klein.

Yes, this is a “civilizational wake-up call,” but we seem to be continually hitting the snooze button on the alarm.

I’m reminded of the cartoon featuring a dazed-looking fellow crawling out of a time machine and telling his friend, “I went into the future to warn them, but they said they already knew and didn’t care.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A reader sent me this, remarking: He’s still here, on duty, guarding the country. 

As we’ve all learned over the past six or seven years, we live among tens of millions of amazingly stupid people. And for this reason, the criminal prosecution of the 45th president is going to cause a great deal of commotion among heavily armed morons.

It needs to be said, however, that rule of law, i.e., the concept that no one is above the law, requires that an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States must not be ignored if American democracy is to survive.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

We’ve all read novels in which various plots threads with no apparent relationship to one another come together at the conclusion to form a unified and consistent package with no loose ends.

One hopes that investigation in the January 6th insurrection and the larger coup attempt is an example of this. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a gag that could apply at any point in our modern history, but it’s particularly timely now, given our concerns about Merrick Garland and the invisible set of procedures that are supposedly taking place within the walls of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Part of the national angst is that, with each passing day, the DoJ is either getting closer to unsealing a set of indictments against Trump and his cronies for seditious conspiracy and treason….or that prospect is getting further away.

We all carry with us the dread of knowing that if justice does not prevail in this case, the United States will essentially disappear from the face of the Earth as a democratic republic.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

From his Wikipedia page:

Richard Rohr is an American Franciscan priest and writer on spirituality based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970. In 2011 PBS called him “one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world.”

Good point to be made here.  Just because a group of people accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior doesn’t necessitate that they live their lives according to His teachings

This is what gave rise to Gandhi’s remarkable quote: “I love your Christ, not so your Christians.”

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

John Locke was one of the most influential thinkers of the European Enlightenment, whose works became central to the U.S. Constitution.

What he says here is worth noting, given the close brush we just had with the demotion of law and the retrogression into authoritarianism.