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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Marjorie Taylor Greene is notorious for her outrageously ill-informed comments, like the one above.  (Kwanzaa is actually a cultural celebration, not a religion.)

The point, however, is not that Greene has mental issues, but that she was voted into office by a district of Americans who have a limitless appetite for this type of crap.

Those attempting to analyze the downfall of the American political scene need to look at two different, though related factors.

1) Trump’s and his administration’s repetitive acts of treason in trying to overturn the 2020 election results, and

2) The sheer idiocy of a large part of our voter base.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

What’s going to happen when the Big Lie has finally run its course and is fully debunked? Will this be a bang or a whimper?

It depends on exactly how that happens.  If a smoking gun is identified in the January 6th investigation and Trump is indicted, it’s going to be clear that Trump knew he lost the election and has been lying about it ever since. That’s a bang.

But suppose that doesn’t happen.  My wife believes that the most likely course is that Trump will simply stop talking about it, and, as time passes, it will fade into oblivion.  That’s a whimper, if that.

Yet this second scenario may not be that easy, because of all the litigation currently in the pipeline and whatever else gets inserted into it by the time all this is over.  The defamation case lodged by the election officials in Georgia and Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.3 billion defamation case come to mind.

It could be argued, however, that stories like these carry little weight with Trump supporters. A federal judge ordered Sidney Powell and Lin Wood (pictured), who filed suit over non-existent election-altering voter fraud, to pay $175,000 in fees to lawyers who defended the state of Michigan and the of city of Detroit against “meritless” claims.  The judge also ordered them to undergo 12 hours of legal education to avoid having their licenses to practice law revoked.  How many Trumpers saw this as evidence of the fact that they’re being lied to?

In any case, each day brings us new revelations. Exciting stuff.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

I was  listening to economist Robert Reich talk about the mainstream media (MSM) the other day.  He began by stating the obvious: the far right stuff from Fox, NewMax, and OAN is essentially a collection of lies and misrepresentations, and there is no way the MSM could be anywhere near that poisonous.

But he went on to provide a few things that bother him about the MSM, one of which is they like to talk about how expensive the solutions to our problems are without putting that into the context of the cost of doing nothing.

As suggested above, climate change may be the poster child for this fallacy.  Yes, the rapid decarbonization of our energy and transportation sectors are expensive, and so is reorienting our approach to land use.  But what are the costs of huge losses of land mass? Desertification? Flood and hurricanes?  Loss of biodiversity?  Ocean acidification?

The only conceivable way to turn this around is putting a tax on carbon and deforestation that discourages misuse and incentivizes new and effective solutions.  As previously discussed, the best approach to all this is the Carbon Fee and Dividend, as described in the blog post linked here.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

When my mom and I speak about politics, it usually comes down to something akin to what we see here.  Fox News acolytes have a cynical and largely incorrect narrative surrounding each of the topics of the day.

What I’ve noticed is that this is impenetrable.  There is no reasoning, there are no words, that will move anyone stuck in the mire.  I’m sure she feels the same about me.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

In his day, Frank Zappa was known not only as one of the world’s finest musicians, but as an astute social critic.  One of the points he felt strongest about was how civics had been eliminated from school curricula, and how this left our young people ignorant of our rights and how government should behave.

As we can see, he was completely correct in what he said here.

We’re not under pressure from any external force, but rather from the gun nuts, the Christian right, the insurrectionists, the anti-vaxxers, the science deniers, the white supremacists, the education destroyers, and the fake news outlets that hold all this insanity and ignorance in place.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

It’s hard to overstate the importance of public safety in a world in which variants of COVID-19 continue to rage.

Back in the old days, few people attached any real significance to issues like this.  When my wife became pregnant with our first child, I took a course in CPR, and noticed that I was the only one there who didn’t need to be there for certification as required for some aspect of his job.

I was hoping I’d never have to use it, and so far, so good.

Choking is not a laughing matter, but if it were, I would refer you to the cartoon here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

You can claim, correctly, that Biden lacks bombast, or even charisma, or that he’s not terrifying to his enemies (does he have any?), but maybe these characteristics are irrelevant to a successful presidency.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It seems there is an interesting schism playing itself out in the Republican party.  Many key players in the GOP are realizing the stolen election narrative is simply making them appear stupid and blocking vital progress in battleground states. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a bill that enables the Capitol Police to request help from the National Guard.

This is good, but I’ll be surprised if there is more violence, even when Trump’s supporters watch him be taken into federal custody.  Retaliation from law enforcement will be swift and overwhelming, and perpetrators will be sentenced to prison.

Yes, some people fear a civil war, but keep in mind that one side is composed of 1.3 million highly trained active-duty military personnel armed with a $770 billion annual budget, and the other side are some semi-literate fats guys with rifles.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

That Trump has radically changed his position on COVID-19 has people wondering what’s going on.

The guiding principle in understanding Trump is that he never does anything that doesn’t benefit him personally; he’s incapable of behaving otherwise. So what does this all mean?

My theory is that when Biden offered Trump congratulations for being the president when the vaccine was first developed, Trump realized suddenly that he could spin this whole thing in a positive direction.  Instead of being remembered as the guy whose heartless and selfish actions and inactions killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans, and who might have had mass manslaughter charges leveled against him, he can, he believes, walk away largely unscathed.

 

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