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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The “Fund for American Studies” asks:

Are you concerned about the Left’s push for more government control?  Do you want to know what life looks like under socialism? 

Then look no further! We’ve got you covered with our FREE eBook, “Socialism, Democratic Socialism, and the Failures of Central Planning.” Written by world renowned economist Matt Kibbe, every single U.S. citizen is warned — and he explains why Venezuela is now the poorest country in Latin America.…
I doubt there is a single person in America, regardless of how far to the left his politics may be, who advocates for “Soviet-style Central Planning” here in the United States.  Finding someone who even understands this concept is going to be a challenge.
More to the point, the Fund for American Studies fully understands this.  
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change
Re: the meme here, a reader notes:  The important thing is that we survive future disasters, not do nothing because we don’t all agree that climate change exists or if it is a natural cycle or caused by humans. I have my opinions and so do you. But I think if we can avoid planetary catastrophe we should do that. Doing effective things about it now is more important. There is a lot that can be done.
My reply to the reader:  I hope you’ll share your ideas as to what can and should be done.
I stopped short of going through what most of us already know: Educated people don’t have “opinions” on matters of science.  We either understand science or we don’t. If I were to say that I think evolution is just a theory, equivalent to creationism, all I’m really saying is that I am ignorant of that particular matter of science.
Of course, science isn’t always perfect; in fact, it never is; it’s simply our best path to an understanding of the universe around us.  Currently, we disbelieve almost all of what we did 500 years ago, and we would be silly indeed to think that science 500 years hence isn’t going to set asunder most of of what we hold true today.
Again, science is the best we have.  It’s better than the occult, just like it’s better than some guy’s opinion.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Now we have a new way to differentiate our products from those of our competitors: wokeness.  Regardless of what we’re selling: beer, razors, cars, workout facilities, or scientific theories, we can always claim that our products are for men who aren’t woke.

Note: this would have have been laughed out of the room until the Trump/MAGA days of the last ten years.  We didn’t hold our nation’s morons in esteem until just that recently.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

NPR’s special series, “The Undercount: The invisible death toll from climate change,” aims to answer this question. When climate and health reporter Alejandra Borunda asked doctors what important topics she should focus on, she heard the same thing over and over: Climate change is hurting a lot of people, but we aren’t doing a good job of keeping track of how many. “We’re undercounting the damage by an enormous amount,” Borunda says.

The answer to the basic question here is no; it’s impossible to provide even a good guess as to this figure, if only because there is no way to ascribe any particular catastrophic event, say a hurricane or a wildfire, to climate change.  It’s really not a matter of doing a good or a bad job at keeping track.

Consider what appears to be a far more black-and-white situation, deaths from COVID-19.  As discussed in this paper, it’s not a straightforward task to say that a certain victim died “with” COVID or “of” COVID.

As unsatisfying as it may be, I’m afraid that the community of climate scientists will eventually give up on the task of counting the deaths due to global warming.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Question: Anti-vaxxers say that the COVID-19 is dangerous and, in particular, that it causes more fatalities than it prevents.  They base this (false) claim on the (groundless) idea that the vaccine has been tested on too few individuals.  In fact, how many doses of the vaccine have been administered worldwide since the onset of the disease in 2020?

Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A reader notes: LOUISIANA REQUIRES ‘TEN COMMANDMENTS’ BE DISPLAYED IN CLASSROOMS! (Leftists break several to fight them.)

This reader, whose name I’ll keep to myself, is normally more on point.  In particular, I’m wondering what “leftists” actually did in breaking the 10 Commandments.  Blogging on Sunday?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Obviously, our government has a long way to go in dealing with price-gouging and monopolies, but Biden really is on a roll (despite a Congress that is essentially owned by Big Money).

Moreover, as the author of the meme here mentions, this explains that huge influx of cash from the billionaires to the Trump campaign.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I wouldn’t say that I’m offended, per se.  In fact, I’m more amused.

In either case, rodeos don’t do it for me.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As anyone could have predicted, the nation’s wealthiest individuals are opening up their checkbooks in an effort to get Donald Trump back in the White House, doing exactly what he promised: lowering their taxes.

The irony here, of course, is that the vast majority of the Trump base does far worse under Trump, insofar as they have been left behind economically.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

When mainstream media covers Biden, its purpose is often to show that he’s a senile old man.  But wouldn’t a bit of fairness and honesty be nice?

As Robert Reich presents here, Biden is putting pressure on Corporate America to do right by U.S. citizens, and this is causing a considerable kerfuffle in court rooms across the country.

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