After Michael Flynn agreed to testify before the January 6 Committee, he surprised no one by refusing to answer the questions he was asked, invoking his right against self-incrimination as protected by the Fifth Amendment. (more…)
Yes, there are issues where the two major U.S. political parties find themselves in bitter disagreement.
But can’t we agree that Americans should be on the side of a democracy when it is invaded by an authoritarian regime?
Hell no.
This would be funny if it weren’t so sickening.
A friend from the world of acting writes:This is a point I’ve been making consistently over the 15 years I’ve been professionally associated with energy markets. The fossil fuel industry is more than 100 years old, and it’s the wealthiest enterprise in human history. Oil, natural gas, and coal are what made the 20th Century what it was in terms of economic growth, but now it’s time to make the transition to energy resources that don’t have the issues like pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and, as you mentioned, war.
Subsidies are meant to bolster things that are good for society, and fossil fuels have long since ceased to be among them.
You mentioned a “non-political sense,” but there is no way to avoid the fact that the only force holding all this up is, in fact, politics. Big Oil is doing everything in its considerable power to strong-arm Congress so as to remain embedded in our society, regardless of its ill-effects.
It’s a very good thing for Trump that, when he opens his mouth, his supporters expect exactly zero in terms of coherent thinking.
Yesterday he was asked about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, specifically, how he thought it would end. He replied, and I’m not making this up:
“Well, and I said this a long time ago, we are playing right into their hands with the green energy,” Trump began. “The windmills. They don’t work. They’re too expensive. They kill all the birds. They ruin your landscapes. Yet, the environmentalists love the windmills. I’ve been preaching this for years. The windmills. I had them way down. The windmills are the most expensive energy you can have, and they don’t work. They last a period of 10 years and by the time they start rusting and rotting all over the place nobody ever takes them down. They just go onto the next piece of prairie or land and destroy that. It’s incredible.”
It wasn’t that long ago that a presidential candidate who rambles like a madman would find his hopes dashed. Here, it seems to function as an advantage.
The pic above features the interviewer. The young man can’t manage to keep the smile off his face. Clever fellow too; he didn’t forget the beer.
This could be the smoking gun.
Note to self:
Craig, committing felonies, especially treason, is not your style. But if you wake up one morning with a totally different personality, and decide you’re going to try to overthrow the United States government, do not, under any circumstances, send emails admitting that you know what you’re doing is illegal.
Regardless of how poorly Trump’s state of intelligence, emotional stability, and character are regarded by those Republicans who know him best, he’s still the #1 GOP candidate in the 2024 election.
Keep in mind that all these observations were made before the former president attempted to overthrow the U.S. government.
EV World’s Bill Moore writes, ” It was inevitable, I suppose, but the Q-Anon crowd is now spreading the latest wacko conspiracy that the reason the Biden Administration is pushing for the shift to electric cars is so the government can OTA (over the air) disable vehicles of people they consider threats.”
The QAnon phenomenon is interesting, in that all these ideas hang together in one coherent mass. If you believe, for instance, that the government planned the pandemic so as to control the population, why wouldn’t you believe they want to take charge of your cars?
Having said all this, and in all honesty, the capacity of police to disable a car would mean the end of high-speed chases and the carnage they produce.
I remember with great fondness the interview I conducted with economist Nate Hagens, Ph.D., as a key part of my second book (Is Renewable Really Doable?). Nate had invited me to a day-long meeting of the Aspen Institute, and we spoke over lunch.
The whole session turned out to be a unique experience, as I’ve never in my entire life, before or since, been exposed to so much top-level thinking. As I told him when I left during the closing wine and cheese, “Thanks so much for everything, Nate, but I need to catch a train, and besides, my brain hurts.”
I was delighted to receive an email from him yesterday, in which he introduced the video series he’s been working on. Here’s a part of it that blew me away, “The Human Superorganism,” which explains the plight that human civilization finds itself in, in terms of economic theory. I hope you’ll check it out.
A reader sent me this pic of the RJ Reynolds’ (cigarette) mansion. Nice place. I hope the family enjoyed it.
That’s because I’m sure they hope there’s not an afterlife during which people who caused the suffering of millions in their current lifetimes suffer similarly in the next.
In response to the possible end of the Amazon rainforest, a reader notes: In general, human life on Earth is not as intelligent as we wish we were.
Intelligence may have something to do with it, but more obvious, to me at least, is the incomprehensible greed and selfishness of the world’s most powerful people, and their astonishing lack of compassion and concern for others.
Most of the world’s population actually does care about the future of humankind, but sadly, we’re not the ones who are making the strategic decisions concerning our industrial policies. Our choices that drive the way we provide our planet’s energy, transportation, and agriculture are made by people to whom their immediate wealth and power mean far more than the well-being of a planet that is rapidly becoming a wasteland.
