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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The Borowitz Report: The basis for Steve Bannon’s arrest is a rarely enforced 1858 statute requiring White House employees to conform to minimal standards of hygiene during their tenure with the executive branch.

I thoroughly enjoy the work of Andy Borowitz, though I have to confess it makes me slightly angry with myself when I’m forced to contemplate the question: Why can’t I do that?

Bannon arrested for contempt.  Bannon known for poor hygiene.  Nothing hidden here.  Once you see it, it’s so obvious.

It’s like watching Jeopardy and having the correct response on the tip of my tongue.  It’s there, but it’s just out of reach.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Here’s a development in materials science whose creators claim will help cities manage water run-off from the storms that are worsening due to climate change.  It’s essentially a porous paver, absorbing far more water than the traditional substances, and then slowly releasing it into the ground beneath it.

Let’s suppose there is some benefit in terms of refilling aquifers and reducing flood damage.  Can this possibly represent a cost-effective solution, considering the vast areas that are exposed to flood waters?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Older Americans pine for the good old days of news reporting, and indeed, Walter Cronkite exemplified those times.

So what’s changed?  Corporate America figured out that it could turn (fairly) objective news into entertainment, and keep Americans glued to it for long stretches of time, absorbing enormous amounts of paid advertising.  In other words, news was converted from a public service into a multi-trillion dollar industry.

Making that happen required creating an us-versus-them environment.  If you’re a conservative, the people who watch CNN want to give away taxpayer money to lazy slobs and illegal aliens. If you’re a progressive, Fox News viewers are hateful, ignorant, selfish pigs.

And so it goes.

Just understand that this didn’t just happen; it was engineered to make huge sums of money.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

My mom and I frequently talk about Biden’s mental faculties.  She maintains that the president is mentally incapacitated, as evidenced by the flawed way he speaks.

My belief is that what she’s hearing and seeing is not at all a random and fair sample of what comes out of his mouth.  Not only is it carefully selected to show dysfunction, but it’s edited so as to magnify the errors.

Here’s an example of what Mom’s primary media source, Fox News, did re: Biden’s speech on Veterans Day.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s true that most progressives don’t want to “come together” with garden-variety Trump supporters.  We reject the hate, the racism, the attack on democracy, the war mongering, the cruelty, and the further enrichment of the super-wealthy at the expense of the common person.

Still, there is something utterly heart-warming in the photo below.

Having attended a Quaker school, this is a reminder of the way I was taught to act, i.e., to love my enemies.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Michael Flynn, former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, suggested that the United States should have just one religion. Said Flynn: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”

I think that if  I walked onto the campus of the K – 8 elementary school across the street and asked a randomly chosen 12-year-old kid what he thought about this, he’d immediately explain that this violates the very notion on which the United States was founded, not to mention the First Amendment to the Constitution.  He’d go on to explain what a hateful and stupid idea it is.  “What, you want to expel all the Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists?”

If you think about this further, you get into the various sects of Christianity, certainly the Protestants and the Catholics.  Which of the two would you ban?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

This is from a Trump supporter reader, and no, it’s not a joke.

You can call yourselves anything you want, but trust me, you’ll be known as antivaxxers forever more, and that moniker will be the very kindest term used.  Expect to be known as “selfish morons.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I wouldn’t say, “No one’s doing a damn thing about it.” Plenty is being done.

The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.5% in January, 2021 to 4.6% today.

The country will be repairing its roads, bridges, electric grid, etc.

More than 60 judges found that there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in the 2020 election.

A congressional committee is making great progress in sorting out the January 6th insurrection, the largest single attack on American democracy since the Civil War, and Trump administration  executives who refuse to comply with subpoenas are being arrested.

More than 600 participants in the insurrection are being sent to prison.

Almost 60% of Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Just stay tuned, my friend.  Lots of good stuff is happening.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As we review what Robespierre said here, ask yourself what the motive for the Republicans’ aggression against our educational system could possibly be.  What’s the purpose behind replacing school board directors with conservative businessmen who have no background in education?  Censoring books?  Removing discussions about racism from text books and rewriting U.S. history?  Inserting Christianity into our curricula? Pulling out chapters on climate change?

Is it a coincidence that undereducated white people almost uniformly support Trump, a man who is still trying desperately to overturn the results of the 2020 election?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s an interesting piece on a land owner who has combined solar PV with vegetable farming.  Obviously, every photon that hits a solar panel is one fewer that helps the plants to photosynthesize.  But if you have a crop that doesn’t require full sun, and you don’t mind the inconvenience that may accompany planting, harvesting, and irrigation, you do have the advantage of requiring less water–by a factor of 50%, the author claims.

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