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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A significant portion of our society here in the United States has always reveled in ignorance; the current pro-Trump, anti-science, white power crowd didn’t just pop up out of the ground.

Maybe the only difference today is that this group attacks literally everything that makes good sense for our civilization.

Want pandemic control?  “Hell no.  We have rights.  Masks don’t work.  Vaccines are lethal.”

Want better education?  “Hell no.  Schools crank out liberals.  Kids learn about LGBTQ and critical race theory.”

Here’s a new one.  Want to electrify everything so as to phase out fossil fuels?  “Hell no.  Electricity will kill you.”

There isn’t a single element of progress that isn’t under rabid attack from today’s hateful morons.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor Hannah Arendt gave us the words here.

In the context of the Holocaust, this makes perfect sense.  We can say that the people who committed those atrocities failed to think of the consequences, and didn’t consider that sending millions of innocent people to agonizing deaths was wrong.  In fact, one of the key architects of the genocide, Adolf Eichmann, used this (unsuccessfully) in his defense: essentially, “I wasn’t thinking.”

Having said that, there are many examples of evil that are perpetrated by people who clearly were thinking.  When we say,  for instance, “Exxon Knew,” we mean that a large team of senior executives in what is now the largest oil company on Earth was informed by the company’s own scientists that continued combustion of fossil fuels would soon warm the planet’s climate to the point that it would lose its capacity to support life as we have known it.  They took that knowledge and conspired to keep it from us, bringing us now to the point that successful climate change mitigation may be impossible.

That may be a failure to think like a decent human being, but it’s certainly not a failure to think per se.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Ted Nordhaus is best known for his position that the environmentalism movement is doomed to failure, and that it should be extinguished, so as to allow pure market forces to come along and win the day.

Let’s begin by noting that, in his essay linked above, most of the points he makes are essentially correct.  The burden of decarbonization does fall primarily on the poorest countries, those who benefit most from fossil fuels.  The international agreements to reduce carbon emissions are (currently, at least) weak and unenforceable.

Having said that, what’s the alternative to hard work and the establishment of global cooperation?  Nordhaus says it’s no problem; let’s just turn our civilization’s fate over to the rapacious greed of Big Oil.

If that sounds like a winner to you, I really don’t know what to say.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Presidente da República popular da China, Xi Jinping

Today, the world’s attention is on Russia, whose aggression at the Ukrainian border is sending the global stock markets into a tailspin.  Of course, at any moment, this could get far worse.

In any case, right now our eyes are off China.  They are worrisome, to be sure, but their strategy for world domination is much more likely to be economic than military.

Moreover, they’re not in a hurry. They’ve been at this for six millennia, and a couple of years here or there won’t make a bit of difference.

No one knows exactly what went through Xi Jinping’s mind when he learned that Donald Trump had initiated a trade war against him, but one has to believe he laughed.  “Here’s a boob who knows no more about international trade than does the guy who shines my shoes, and he thinks he’s going to force an advantage for himself over the PRC.  Sure.”

Speaking of economics, the graphic below shows their growth in high-speed rail, and it illustrates what China does best: invest in itself.

 

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

When my kids were younger, I urged them to aim for careers that would require them to use their minds, rather than their hands.  If something can be done by a robot,” I explained, “It ultimately will be done by a robot.”

At the time, I was thinking about a machine that does what we see here, i.e., making French fries.

As time passed since those days, however, it’s became obvious that functions that formerly required the sharpest of minds are not immune from threat of mechanization at all.  Dentists are still drilling teeth, urologists are still performing prostatectomies, and radiologists are still reading X-rays, but could that even possibly be the case in 50 years?

Not only will robotics be replacing professionals who are bringing home $300K per year, but the machines will actually do a better job.

It could be argued that a “human touch” will always be superior to computer-driven systems. Certainly parenting, and perhaps sales, teaching, financial advice, and justice.  Let’s hope so.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This is a funny reminder that Fox News will soon find itself in a very difficult position re: its support of Trump.

If the former president’s legal woes don’t somehow subside, he’s going to be indicted for any of a number of felonies, and some version of sedition seems to be the top candidate.

How will Fox cover this?  Are they going to expect America to believe that the entirety of the U.S. judicial system is corrupt, and this is part of their masterplan to remove Trump once and for all?

Will they retract some of their supportive statements?  Of course, they could simply stop covering the whole story, but that’s not going to be easy when every literate person on Earth is glued to every wrinkle as it unfolds.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Last week, I would have happily bet that there would never be a post here that glorified rap music.  Turns out, I would have lost.

Readers may be aware that Rudy Giuliani took a swipe at Eminem for the latter’s taking a knee during the Super Bowl.  That’s presented in the video below, along with the rapper’s response (obviously created by the writers at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert).

I’m always amazed when some doofus like Giuliani is stupid enough to go for a frontal attack against the full creative force of America’s comic genius.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I guess the only response to what insurrectionist Paul Davis says here is “good.”

People who take instructions from wanna-be dictators and commit heinous crimes deserve to have their lives severely impacted by their hateful stupidity.

There are people who came into January 6th with high-powered jobs and six-figure salaries who are now working in car washes.  I love the realtor who thinks her career will pick back up where it left off once she’s released from jail.  I doubt it, lady.

Rightfully, judges are taking this into consideration when handing down sentences: this fool’s life is already scarred forever.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an interesting development, though it’s unlikely it will mean much, given that the criminal cases against Trump and company are continuing to roll out.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

Perhaps the most important take-away from the Reagan presidency is that political rhetoric that creates a strong bond of connection with conservative voters buys a Republican president a pass against many, if not all, of his missteps in office.  If he’s able to convince people who care very little about anyone or anything outside of their immediate families that he’s going to do right by them, it really doesn’t matter what he actually does while  in the White House.

Forty years later, American voters find ourselves processing our experience with Donald Trump, who, it could be argued, redefined what it means to be a “Teflon” (no-stick) president.  Things that would have been lethal, even to Reagan’s presidency, e.g., mocking a disabled reporter, went essentially unnoticed by Trump supporters.

Now, there are two key differences between these two periods in American history: a) in 1980 there was no “news” channel devoted to supporting a Republican president, regardless of how dishonest he was, and b) the American educational system hadn’t degraded to the point that we were living our lives surrounded by hateful and ignorant people.

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