Category: Renewables – Politics
From Guest-Blogger Cameron Atwood: A Government’s Violence Against Its People Is Not “In Control”
| February 3, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s an item from the file “It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.”
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton told the UN Security Council, “The evidence is clear that (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad’s forces are initiating nearly all the attacks that kill civilians, but as more citizens take up arms to resist the regime’s brutality, violence is increasingly likely to spiral out of control.”
Isn’t it obvious that, in any situation where a nation’s military is killing its own people that the situation has already spiraled out of control? Is there a sense in which a government’s violence against its own people is “in control?”
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Why Good People Are Not Attracted To Politics
| February 2, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Frequent commenter Greg Chick writes:
I am not sure why good leaders are not in politics. Possibly good leaders can make lots of money (in the private sector) …
The single best answer I can provide is that the political process as it exists today is utterly repugnant to good people. I’m sure there are many fine people with noble aspirations to make a difference in our world, but they immediately meet with the cruel reality: getting elected and staying in office is about raising money and repaying it in favors, not voting one’s conscience and doing what’s right for the majority of the people. Read More
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It’s Fashionable To Hate Government, But…
| January 31, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s a good article for those interested in global climate change and the role of government in our lives. Journalist Christian Parenti points out that private sector interests alone will do very poorly in dealing with the enormity of the challenge facing us all in the form of extreme weather events created by global warming.
He notes, for instance, that 2011 was the driest year in the recording history of Texas, resulting in wildfires that consumed more than four million acres. He points out that the cost of repairing the damage to the thousands of homes and buildings, and rebuilding the agriculture businesses lost in the fires, is an estimated $5.2 billion—not something that the private sector can easily absorb. And of course, the Texas drought was just one of many individual extreme weather events whose frequency is expected to increase over time.
For my money, Parenti does an excellent job in putting this issue in perspective: it’s fashionable to hate government, but without some teeth in the public sector, our planet will soon lie in ruins.
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Good Ideas in Sustainability and Clean Energy Won’t Happen in the Absence of Good Leadership
| January 31, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A great number of folks wrote in, commenting on my recent piece in which I outlined Plans A, B, and C, i.e., three broad-level ways in which our society could deal with its sustainability issues vis-à-vis energy. Many people commented that a hybrid approach can – and should – be taken.
Good suggestions include integrating:
• A holistic approach to transportation that reduces overall fuel consumption and the number of individual cars and trucks in service Read More
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Can the American Political Process Result in Real Leadership?
| January 27, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A friend who favors right-wing ideologies sent me a video in which the Cato Institute ripped up Obama’s State of the Union Address, pointing out certain claims as lies – even challenging the legality of some of the actions he’s taken as president. While I’m not a huge fan of the Cato Institute, they’re no fools, and they certainly make some good points here. Let’s also admit that Obama has been a bitter disappointment, as millions of us realized that he’s just another politician, put in place with huge money (in this case, Big Pharma and Wall Street) to protect and expand these interests. Read More
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Clean Energy Will Come When We Clean Up Government
| January 22, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here, Ronald Reagan’s budget director David Stockman speaks to the level of corruption that exists between Washington and Wall Street. I’m always impressed with people who enjoy the luxury of self-criticism; Stockman is clearly remorseful for the position he took in the 1980s.
Anyone who expects capital formation around clean energy in the face of this type of cronyism is dreaming. We either fix this, or we suffer the consequences.
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Deal with Corporate-Government Collusion Or We’re Doomed as a Nation
| January 20, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A friend of mine who runs a very successful hedge fund cautions me to expect inflation, and suggests that perhaps it’s a good time for me to get back into real estate. But our discussion so far leaves me unconvinced:
Friend: May be time to buy real estate again.
Craig: Yes, I really think that dollar-denominated assets have to appreciate. Real estate scares me, though, with the glut of foreclosures, etc.
Friend: Yes, but it’s always darkest before the dawn.
Craig: The fundamentals of real estate don’t appeal to me, especially Americans’ gross inability to compete Read More
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2GreenEnergy Opposes SOPA and PIPA
| January 18, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
We don’t believe in censorship of the Internet. Why not take a second and tell Congress that you feel the same? Sign the petition here.
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Steady Erosion of Civil Liberties Is a Real Challenge for “The Land of the Free”
| January 16, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Journalist Chris Hedges’ op-ed “Why I’m Suing Barack Obama” provides the rationale behind his use of the U.S. court system to challenge Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, questioning the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act. In it he writes:
The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism,” for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until “the end of hostilities.” It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties.
A catastrophic blow indeed. Read More
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GOP Candidates Bashing the EPA
| January 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s an article from the New York Times, a bit out of date, but still fiercely relevant: Bashing E.P.A. Is New Theme in G.O.P. Race, pointing out that Newt Gingrich wants to padlock the E.P.A.’s doors, and Rick Perry wants to impose an immediate moratorium on environmental regulation. Yet David Jenkins, speaking for Republicans for Environmental Protection says, “Not only are these positions irresponsible, they’re politically problematic.”
You have that right, Mr. Jenkins. There may be a great deal of truth in H. L. Mencken’s famous line: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” But we’re not so brain-dead that we’ll vote for a return to the days of unfettered garbage-dumping into our skies and oceans.
