The photo here was taken yesterday, when the Texas State Capitol building flooded and this corridor became a lap pool.
This, of course, is gushing (pun intended) with irony, given that this is where the legislators who created Texas’s horrific energy policy do their jobs.
Additionally, this is the workplace of the people who claim the climate crisis doesn’t exist.
Green New Deal legislation
Here’s an academic paper on the Green New Deal as a mechanism to mitigate climate change and other forms of environmental disaster.
It’s highly critical of the GND, based, as it is, largely around renewable energy and the electrification of everything that formerly required fossil fuels. Its authors point to the eco-costs of mining the materials that go into these technologies, as well as the issue of waste disposal when things like solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries reach the end of their lives. Further, they point out that renewable energy technology can’t keep up with the growth of the population and the exploding demand for energy. (more…)
Here’s a video in which a water buffalo comes to a friend’s aid, in a way that I found funny.
May it serve as a reminder that we all need to help one another through these trying times. The very least we can do is get vaccinated.
From senior energy analyst Glenn Doty:
So the 521 unvaccinated cases in their hospital systems came from a pool of only ~26% of the population, while the 13 vaccinated cases came from 74% of their population.
This indicates that if the population pools were similar, only about 0.6% of of the hospitalizations would be from vaccinated persons.
Something to think about as you watch the horror and death continue to expand in the red states that refuse vaccine passports and mask mandates.
Our struggle to control the pandemic has run headlong into mass stupidity and selfishness. “Why would I make a sacrifice to keep someone else healthy and safe?”
It’s really the same deal with climate change mitigation. “Why should I cut into my personal lifestyle so the other 8 billion people on this planet and their descendants can enjoy their lives?”
One of the saddest aspects of life today is how many different types of people deserve our sympathy. A tiny fraction of us, and I include myself, have been directly affected by the pandemic very little. Young people, however, have had their childhoods or adolescences disfigured. Their parents have been turned into homeschool teachers. Tons of people are unemployed or underemployed. Scads of small businesspeople have been ruined.
Dan Rather makes an important point at left. Healthcare workers have taken enormous risks and made huge sacrifices, only to be scorned by the anti-vaxxers who are now choking our hospitals.
Most older Americans pine for the days of Walter Cronkite, the news journalist thought to be, in his day, “the most trusted man in America.” But let’s think about that.
Suppose his coverage was, in fact, perfectly objective, meaning that he put zero spin on his presentation. But what about the selection of the stories themselves? Did he and CBS News cover U.S. aggression around the globe? Our support of world dictators? Systemic racism?
Through the four decades since Cronkite stepped down in 1981, the monetary value of news programming has gone through the roof, and the enormous profits it generates derive from its transition from objectivity to infotainment. To provide appealing content, news has become divided according to the political leaning of its audience.
This is the sad truth. Conservatives hate CNN, and progressives hate Fox News, but realize that they are simply filling market demand, and making an absolute fortune for their investors.
From 2GreenEnergy supporter and Plug In America co-founder Paul Scott: Met some friends at the Lucid showroom in Beverly Hills. What a beautiful car they have! Deliveries start later this year. Factory is near Phoenix, AZ. Definitely a car to consider if you want a super powerful EV sedan. This company will help Tesla kill the ICE industry.
Is this simply a knock-off on a Tesla? Who cares? The more solid entrants into this market the better.
BTW, the Lucid Air is actually more advanced than the Tesla. Range: 517 miles. I don’t know anyone who wants to drive anywhere near that far in a single day.
Over the last few decades, the United States has replaced its strong middle class with obscenely wealthy 0.1% and a huge majority of people struggling to get by.
As shown here, most of the countries in Europe and Scandinavia have no interest in going in that direction.
At this point, about two-thirds of Republicans believe that Biden’s victory was illegitimate. This tragedy is driven by the lies of the former president, that are echoed by a few voices, small in number but deafening in volume, like that of Mike Lindell (the Pillow Guy).
Most of the largest major mainstream media sources have published articles refuting this meritless noise, though perhaps the most comprehensive is that of CNN. Well done.
The rest of the world remains in a blend of mourning and astonishment that the United States could have fallen so hard, so fast.
Here’s a meme a reader sent me that shows a near-complete misunderstanding of world politics.
First, there are no countries on Earth that even remotely resemble communism, i.e., Karl Marx’s concept of a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state. There are, of course, a huge number of authoritarian regimes, but again, they have no characteristics that are in any way communist.
Further, freedom exists on a gradient scale. The United States ranks 15th in the world freedom rankings, which are calculated annually, based on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, individual economic choice, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, violence and crimes, freedom of movement, and women’s rights. Currently, the freest countries are New Zealand and Switzerland, and Venezuela and North Korea are at the bottom.
