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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

In 2023, the United States received an 83 on a scale from 0 to 100 on the Freedom Awards, from an organization called “FreedomHouse.”  That placed us #17 of the 200+ sovereign nations on Earth.

Not bad, but what would it have taken to win first place, i.e. at or above the levels of Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia and Iceland?  Well, let’s look at the 12 criteria the judges use:

Rule of law
Security and safety
Movement
Religion
Association, assembly, and civil society
Expression and information
Identity and Relationships
Size of Government
Legal System and Property Rights
Access to Sound Money
Freedom to Trade Internationally
Regulation

I see two main gaping holes in American’s position here.

1) Rule of law.  The judges don’t like multi-tiered justice systems.  And just wait until they see what is happening here in 2024, where our Supreme Court is weighing the idea of granting immunity from criminal prosecution to the president, essentially making him a king.  It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.

2) Religion.  The judges are also turned off to countries in which the proponents of one religion have authority over others.  Our push to have the Christian bible inserted in our public school system will not sit well.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

By the time the prosecutors in the RICO case in Georgia get finished with Guiliani, a license to practice law will be of no more value to him than a diploma in devil worship.  He either flips on Trump and takes a plea deal in exchange for a lighter sentence (as others have done), or he stands behind the wanna-be dictator and goes down hard.

In either case, he’s finished.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

My mom and I have been talking about presidential immunity lately, as I can’t think of an idea that more directly confounds what the Founding Fathers intended in terms of rule of law and the concept of a monarchy as a replacement for American democracy.

Mom believes if that U.S. presidents don’t have immunity, that they can be charged with crimes by their political opponents as in this case with Biden.  What I try to get her to realize is that our justice system doesn’t work that way. In Trump’s case, four different grand juries in four different jurisdictions found there was solid evidence that Trump had committed 91 felonies and needed to be indicted accordingly.

If Biden had any power in this regard, do you think his own son would be going on trial for gun-law violations?

What about Nixon?  He didn’t have immunity, which is why he resigned in disgrace.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Funny meme here.

Seriously, however, many Trump supporters disbelieve that their hero lost to Biden by seven million votes, purely on the basis that the president didn’t do rallies with hats and flags.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

In my limited experience, even the most unintelligent and backwards people say they believe in science but contend (because this is what their online “research” has taught them), that disciplines like epidemiology and climate change are driven by money and politics, rather than science itself.

Frankly, I have some level of sympathy for these folks, and I count myself lucky at some level that I happen to know a significant number of high-level scientists in these fields personally, and that I can vouch for their integrity on an individual basis.

Also, my brain is wired along the lines of what philosopher David Hume wrote: “We always disbelieve the greater miracle.”

What’s more likely?  That millions of people, all around the globe, with “MD” and “PhD” after their names, working in research institutions and hospitals, conspired to develop and disseminate a story that COVID-19 was a serious disease when they knew it was no more dangerous than the flu?  Or, alternatively, that these people followed legitimate science to reach their conclusions, and took measures to prevent even worse outcomes than those we actually experienced?

When I come across a conspiracy theorist whose ideas are completely baseless, it reminds me that, in so many ways, we’ve lost our ability to think.  Then we see phenomena like Trump rising in the polls, and we have to admit that this is all completely predictable.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an article from Fox News: Stephen A. Smith reacts to Trump’s guilty verdict, says it ‘all points to civil war.’

Well, here are a few legitimate questions, I believe:

When will it begin?  There were more people milling around our local hardware store yesterday than there were Trumpers supporting their leader in front of the courthouse in New York where the jury was deliberating, ultimately to convict the former president of all the 34 felony charges against him.

What form will it take?  Whom will his base of heavily armed morons attack?  All 40 million of us woke Californians?

When and how will it end?  How does one think that whatever tiny percentage of the Trump base that doesn’t mind spending years or decades in prison will fare against 1.3 million law enforcement personnel as assisted by the U.S. military with its $800 billion annual budget? We’re #1 in spending on military personnel and weapons, more than the next 14 countries combined. These soldiers have pledged their honor to the U.S. Constitution, not to a single deranged criminal.  I give it a few days, max.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s conclusion from a recent report from my colleague Renaldo Brutoco on battery EVs (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel-cell EVs (FCEVs):

As we continue to advance towards a low-carbon future, both BEVs and FCEVs will play pivotal roles. By embracing both technologies, we can ensure a smoother transition to sustainable mobility, effectively mitigating the environmental impact of our transportation needs while satisfying the diverse requirements of consumers and industry. This dual approach not only maximizes the benefits of each technology but also exemplifies the innovative strategies needed to overcome modern energy challenges.  

I respectfully disagree.  Eventually, the winner will win and loser will lose.  And, in particular, hydrogen will lose out, even though BEVs, as Renaldo correctly indicated in his piece, have challenges.

We’ve been talking with great enthusiasm about hydrogen since I was a teenager in the early 1970s, but with virtually no progress over the intervening period.  At stake is the cost of producing H2 from the electrolysis of water or the reformation of methane, the cost and fragility of fuel cells, and, most importantly, the absence of a fuel delivery infrastructure and the enormous economic and logistical challenges associated with overcoming that issue.

What will eventually happen with hydrogen in transportation is exactly what happened to wave energy, ocean current energy, run of river hydrokinetics, biomass, and geothermal in renewable energy.  Outside of niche applications, they all lost as the technology of solar and wind matured and the costs fell precipitously.

I know Renaldo is a huge fan of hydrogen, but it’s time to say goodbye.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

This from Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington, D.C., conservative think tank.

Good for a conservative to put science in front of politics and religion.

Also, good for a conservative to give a damn about the losses that the common American faces from storm floods, wildfires, etc.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Will the oil companies attack the living hell out of Vermont’s new law?  Of course.  Will the legislation survive the onslaught of law suits that Big Oil brings against it?  Probably not.

But the point is that it’s the first attempt in the United States to internalize the externalities of burning hydrocarbons, i.e., prohibiting the fossil fuel boys from using the Earth’s atmosphere as their own private sewer.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In our media, the decision re: what to cover is just as important as how to cover it.

Of course, sometimes a subject simply cannot be ignored, like Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts concerning election interference / business fraud.  Then, if you’re Fox News, you need to spin this as an unfair attack from a political opponent.

Their viewers could question what influence Joe Biden has on the New York State justice system, but that’s extremely unlikely to happen.

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