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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It appears that the case that Trump attempted a coup is getting stronger by the hour.

What makes this clear is the sheer volume of people involved.  Trump may have people (read: fools) so loyal to him that they’ll go down on contempt charges rather than testify against him.  But that doesn’t matter when there are plenty of them, like the bozo shown here, who will happily tell the truth, especially in exchange for immunity.

If you were going to rob a bank, would you try to involve as many people as possible?  Would you go to your next high school reunion and try to get everyone there to help you plan and execute the heist?  If not, you have the good sense not to do what Team Trump apparently did.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

As I expected I might, I had a bit of push-back on my recent piece entitled “Chemistry Technobabble.” In particular, a reader asked, “Did you know there is enough H202 in the oceans in many places to use as a supply?”

Yes, but one can also say that there is 1.5 million tons of gold in our oceans. I.e., it’s there, but completely impractical to retrieve.
Most of the hydrogen peroxide produced in the industrialized world is made in large chemical plants, where methane, or natural gas, is used to provide a source of hydrogen, which is then reacted with oxygen in a catalytic process under high heat. I.e., it’s highly energy intensive.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here is a letter that the healthcare providers in Oklahoma sent to their  members. Keep in mind that Oklahoma ranks 44th out of the 50 states in terms of vaccination compliance, so we’re talking about a high concentration of deeply committed anti-vaxxers.

Note the calm and professional tone.  Even the call to get vaccinated and boosted is muted, and doesn’t even happen until the last third of the missive.  At the very least, whoever wrote this resisted the temptation to refer to some of these people as selfish morons; let’s give credit where credit is due.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s hard not to get ahead of ourselves and project ahead to a point in the future where Trump is indicted for one or more felonies associated with his conduct while in the White House.

The point made in the meme here will be the crux of the debate.  Will these justice actions be accepted as legitimate by his supporters?  Of course not.  We’re headed for a ****storm.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s a shame that Biden’s approval rating is falling.  People want someone to blame when people are hurting, and the president is simply a sitting duck, regardless of his complete innocence in causing the situation. School lockdowns due to skyrocketing omicron cases? Putin coming after the Ukraine? Inflation? Chaos in Afghanistan? All bad news for Biden.

I tend to look at all this the same way Rob Reiner apparently does.  We just removed a treasonous sociopath from the White House.  Jack the Ripper would have been an improvement. Let’s just chill, as my kids would say.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The graph here may appear to be good news. After all, even Fox News isn’t 100% behind Trump at this point, and the justice system is clearly making progress re: the coup attempt, the fraud case in New York, etc.

Yet we need to understand that if the 2024 election were held tomorrow, essentially every one of these “defectors” would vote for the wanna-be-dictator-in-chief.

At stake is their belief that Trumpism, with all its sedition, racism, cruelty, environmental damage, gun violence, rejection of science, destruction of the middle class, and collapse of the educational system is a better form of government than anything the “radical left” can provide.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I heard an extremely senior federal prosecutor explain this is follows:  “There is no question that Trump’s call was corrupt.  But was it criminal?  Not necessarily.  If he honestly thought he won the state election, and he was asking for votes that he believed existed, that’s not criminal.”

I hate to say it, but he’s right.  That’s probably why this is taking so long, and why additional testimony is required to establish that Trump’s phone call was actually a criminal act.  If this fizzles, it will also explain that.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Several theories could be advanced as to why the United States is the only nation in the developed world that doesn’t offer its citizens government-sponsored healthcare.

By far the most obvious is that a population of healthy and happy people who are not desperately living on the brink of impoverishment is not conducive to the process of turning millionaires into billionaires.  Wealth beyond the imagination is the main force that motivates American society.

This, of course, transfers itself directly into lawmaking.  Congress is elected almost exclusively on the basis of donations from the uber-rich.  Do you think these people could possible give a damn that our citizens–even our war veterans–are living in the streets or in their cars, dying of treatable diseases?

Providing universal healthcare would have another consequence that may be even more unacceptable, i.e., the epiphany that government isn’t the enemy of the people.  Once there exists the idea that we can all be a part of something that is compassionate and organized, the dog-eat-dog, stressed out environment so necessary for maintaining grindingly horrific working conditions begins to recede.

Bad news for the billionaire class.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’ll never forget my first exposure to American political scientist Michael Parenti.  I was in my late teens, and my education up to that point had been fairly neutral in terms of the United States’ position in the geopolitical world.  I believe I had come across this very speech (linked above), which completely knocked me off my feet.

If you check out this short excerpt, you’ll see why.

I chuckle when I hear Trump supporters asserting that the U.S. is a socialist nation, or is at least headed in that direction.  Want to see what socialism actually looks like?  Look no further.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

This from a reader:

The founder of Dubai, Sheik Rashid, was asked about the future of his country, and he replied, “My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I ride a Mercedes, my son rides a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a Land Rover…but my great-grandson is going to have to ride a camel again. “Why is that, he was asked?  (more…)

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