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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

With each passing day it’s becoming more clear that Joe Biden will be inaugurated at noon on January 20, 2021.  This means, on or before that moment, that Donald Trump will either leave the country to escape criminal prosecution, or stay and fight for his freedom.

Although this may seem cut and dried, it really isn’t, because until he’s officially removed from office, he continues to wield the awesome power of President of the United States, meaning that he’s capable of virtually anything, regardless of how destructive it may be to those around him.  After four years of this, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that he couldn’t care less about anyone but himself.

As the sign reads, BE PREPARED FOR THE UNEXPECTED.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I don’t think anyone believes that 2020 has been a particularly good year.  A mishandled pandemic, a would-be dictator, child abuse by federal officials, and the wholesale destruction of rule of law.  Some might even call it a nightmare.

Speaking of nightmares, the sign here symbolizes one that most people have suffered: the desperate but thwarted need to separate oneself from people who mean us harm.

The difference in this case, of course, is that the sign here is real.  I don’t know where it hangs, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend entering the area behind it.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

From this: In his book, Charles Koch admits that he has come to regret his political partiality.  “Boy, did we screw up!” Koch writes in his book, according to the Wall Street Journal. “What a mess!”” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From Vice President Henry A. Wallace, April 9, 1944: “The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity .…They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”

Fast-forward 76 years, and things aren’t much different, except that the fascists are aided by tens of millions of undereducated people.  Yes, there are the amoral rich who simply want to subjugate the “common man,” but they’re backed up by an electorate so gullible that it came amazingly close to re-electing Donald Trump, even after all the lies, cruelty, obstruction, fraud, and incompetence.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From this:

Trump has still yet to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, and by Thursday morning, he was continuing to fire off baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud. But NBC News’ Peter Alexander reports, citing a White House aide, that Trump is “very aware there is not a path to victory” for him and is putting up legal challenges as a kind of “theater” for his supporters, believing that they “deserve a fight.” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From The Atlantic: Fox News Hits a Dangerous New Low — The most-watched news network in America is choosing to mislead its viewers about the state of the election.

Here are some of the things that happened yesterday evening on the most-watched news network in America: The minority leader of the House of Representatives announced, absolutely falsely and with no pushback, that “President Trump won this election.” A former speaker of the House argued that, in the name of democracy, the U.S. federal government should “lock up” state election workers. One of the most-watched TV hosts in the country implied to the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania legislature should override the will of the state’s voters to appoint its own electors. Lindsey Graham responded, gravely, “Everything should be on the table.”

So here we go, our ostensibly honest and responsible leaders urging mass lawlessness, whose only possible outcome is gun violence.  How can it turn out any differently?  There are 70 million largely uneducated people, armed to the teeth, being told that their hero has been cheated out of re-election by the liberals and the media.  What else can we expect here?

There was a time during this morass that it appeared Fox News would take a more reasoned position, and, at the very least, stay out of the riot-incitement business.  Looks like that didn’t happen.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

In my post called “In Celebration of Science,” I tried to provoke a discussion on how we come to know things.  In response, a reader notes:  At least one component of deciphering the truth lies in being able to tap into the thinking of  people whose opinions you trust and have reason to trust (and also understand their inherent biases). 

Well, that’s fine.  But the issue of trusted resources, while appealing on the surface, really doesn’t buy us much.  Why does Person A trust the New York Times, Fox News, or Person B?

(more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles, Sustainability

Unfortunately, it turns out that Elon Musk is not a very good person.  In September, he wouldn’t say who’ll get his vote for president, telling The New York Times, “Let’s just see how the debates go.” What??? Also, Tesla workers and worker advocates say the company is risking the health and safety of its workers during the pandemic in relentless pursuit of profits.

Having said that, Tesla’s stellar performance in electric transportation has turned the automotive world on its head.  Here’s yet another improvement in the Model 3, a battery that boosts the car’s range to 352 miles.  Not sure how much farther anyone wants to drive in a day.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s something to make us smile.

Aunty Emm: “You just got a bad bump on the head.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

At first glance, this makes sense.  It’s what Buckminster Fuller meant when he said, “You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”

There is a problem here, however.  We live in a time where the world’s most powerful person is a pathological liar, blatant criminal, and wannabe dictator.  We’re surrounded by Nazis, Earth-plunderers, and child abusers.  I’m happy to tell you: I’m vehemently against these people.

This whole subject has been on the minds of the great thinkers since Plato, and it’s perhaps best summed up by mid-20th Century philosopher of science Karl Popper, who developed the “paradox of tolerance.” It states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Popper went on, “In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.”

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