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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

What Harrison Ford says here is on point, but keep in mind that our “leaders” are simply reflecting what voters want.  They understand that most people will make precious few sacrifices for the good of the people who will inhabit this planet 50 years hence.

Yes, it’s selfish, but that’s where we are.

If everyone donated 2% of his net worth to the decarbonization of our energy and transportation sectors, and to putting an end to deforestation, all this mess would simply go away.

Many of us would be thrilled to write that check, but, regrettably, too few.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Not sure about this.

You’re asking your guests to step on the flag?

That’s hardly the biggest issue here. The vast majority of Americans  (~70%) have liberal values.  Why announce your politics if most people find them abhorrent?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Those wondering why indictments haven’t rained down on Donald Trump and company for their amazing litany of crimes (and who isn’t?) will appreciate this video by former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, as a part of his series Justice Matters.

I’ll be the first to admit ignorance of the rules that govern federal vs. state prosecutions; I really learned a lot here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Sad.  And disgusted.

The pace at which our society is falling apart seems to be near freefall.

I know these are tough times.  We’re trying to:

Manage a pandemic when 20%+ of us are anti-vaxxers.

Restore rule of law after an attempted coup, where 50% of Republicans believe Trump won the 2020 election.

Live amicably with people of color, though white nationalism has expanded to a level not since the KKK in the 1920s.

Keep our children safe in a country where AR-15s are multiplying like rabbits.

Yet it tears our hearts out to see people, like this guy, turn into savages and make a bad situation worse.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

One has to think that the meme here is on point.

How could the mass stupidity and hatred we have in the United States wind up in Canada if they didn’t learn it from their neighbors to the south?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

This is funny, until you think about it.

Yes, we can remove the academics from school and replace them with practical or vocational studies like farming, carpentry, or, in this case, tax prep.

But then we accelerate the dwindling spiral on which we’re already embarked, and wind up with semiliterate kids with no understanding of math and science, further handing our future over to China, and all the other nations who actually care about educating their young people.

If you’re a Trump supporter, destroying education has the side benefit of cranking out voters who don’t care about pathological liars in the White House, women’s rights, environmental responsibility, cruelty, wealth inequality, common sense gun laws, voter suppression, or any of the aspects of the present-day GOP platform.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The reader who sent me this meme supports the banning of high-capacity rifle magazines, which, if it stands, will most certainly mean that fewer of our children and other loved ones will be blown to bits.

The problem, of course, is that this piece of legislation in the State of Washington will be challenged in various courts, and one of them will eventually overturn it.  The U.S. Supreme Court, in the extremely unlikely event that it gets that far, will refuse to hear it.

I love this reader’s enthusiasm, and I hope she will not be let down, but that’s all but inevitable. It’s one of what could be collectively called “our great American tragedies.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I don’t think anyone with any sense or decency wants to “ban Fox News.” Here are some things that really must be done, however.

Fox should not be allowed to promote itself as a “news” source and, at the same time, defend itself against lawsuits on the basis that “no one with even a feeble level of intelligence accepts that its programming is truthful.” This is the basis on which Fox has consistently prevailed in court against litigants who accuse it of libel.

This idea is not my own; the Canadian government doesn’t permit Fox to broadcast, but only because the network refuses to replace the word “news” with something honest, perhaps “opinions” or “entertainment.”

Having said all this, the FCC actually should revoke Fox’s license to broadcast if it’s shown that it deliberately spread COVID disinformation that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I love this woman’s observation.

We hope that all the phenomena that signal the rise of fascism, book banning among them, will all be rejected by the American public.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I don’t think we impute too much integrity into U.S. politicians, most of whose M.O. consists of taking large donations from moneyed interests, and then repaying the donors with laws that provide them unfair benefits, at the expense of the American people.

Yet who saw this coming? A complete breakdown of all integrity.  Widespread support for a pathological liar, conman, and wanna-be fascist dictator.

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