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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This from French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher François-Marie Arouet, known to us as Voltaire.  If you’ve never read Candide, I hope you’ll treat yourself.

The reason he’s correct here is the truth of what Plato said 2000 years prior, which I paraphrase: Only people who do not desire power are qualified to have it.

The United States has had its issues with a few presidents, e.g., Jackson, Harding, and Nixon, though, until Trump, we never had a leader whose interests were based only on his own enrichment and aggrandizement.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Without doubt, there are many vectors in American civilization that have all come together to create what we call “Trumpism” or the MAGA movement.

One, of course, is the presence of Trump himself. Until 2015, when he came on the political scene, no one had dared to run for U.S.  president on a platform of hate and lies, e.g., immigrants are taking your jobs, the Democrats are coming for your guns, LGTBQs are grooming your children while schools are teaching them to hate America, climate scientists and epidemiologists are corrupt, etc.

Another factor here is the decline in our educational system and the accompanying loss of young people’s capacity for critical thinking.

Yet, to be fair, a great deal of the glue that holds Trump supporters together is the resentment with which they regard our socio-economic landscape, i.e., that their wages have stagnated over the 40+ years, at the exact point in time at which the top 1% have become rich beyond measure. If you were watching the world pass you by in terms of real income and net worth, you may be easy pickin’s for the MAGA rhetoric yourself.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

My conservative mother points out that, whenever Trump is attacked, his popularity rises.

There does seem to be some truth here, though perhaps the causal element here is simply that his name stays in the news. For example, the media loves Trump’s Christmas post here, in which he expresses his hope that all progressives ROT IN HELL (emphasis his).

Of course, that’s not a very Christian thing to wish, but isn’t that the point?  It needs to be sufficiently controversial so as to essentially force the press to run with it.

Back to the post and its effect on Trump’s approval rating.  There must be a point at which insane rants like these are more sneered at and rejected by American voters than they are appreciated.  We’re angry, and we’re clearly not too bright, but again, there must be a point which these tactics fail to achieve its objectives.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

America’s favorite poet makes a good point.

But Marcus Aurelius and the other stoic philosophers would add three more on top of his: until it doesn’t.   

Seize the day.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Until his retirement, Rick Sikes managed the fleet of cars and trucks operating in the city of Santa Monica, CA, a municipality generally known for its progressive stance with respect to environmental stewardship.  He worked hard to integrate alternative-fueled vehicles of all types: electric, yes, but also an interesting array of hydrogen, natural gas, even propane.

I interviewed Rick as the basis for a chapter of my first book, “Renewable Energy–Facts and Fantasies,” as an example of what forward-thinking cities are capable of when it comes to phasing out petroleum.  I conducted the talk on a walking tour of his facility, which features huge tanks of different types of fuel, during which I asked, jokingly, “Am I in any personal danger here this afternoon?”

Taking me seriously, Rick replied that gas-powered vehicles are far more likely to catch fire than EVs and the rest. In fact, there are so many explosions of traditional cars each day that most of them don’t even make the local news.

Here we are 15 years later, and now we’re starting to see the propaganda that falsely claims that EVs are extremely likely to burst into flames, an assertion refuted in this recent article in AutoBlog. This stuff is composed by people who have no moral issues with blatant dishonesty.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Wow.

If nothing else, Trump is shameless.

Apparently, he thinks his supporters forget that he said this both before and during his four-year presidency, and exactly zero happened.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If there is one good thing about the MAGA cult, it’s that these people are not trying to slip by unnoticed.

The red hats and Let’s Go Brandon signs are hard to miss.

Then there’s this guy with the truck.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As we go through the waning days of 2023 and into what could be called “The Year of the 91 Felonies,” here (at left) is the message the former president wants to convey.

There are some MAGA people who believe that the entirety of the U.S. justice system has been weaponized against Trump, but the number of these people is rapidly dwindling.  And that’s before the criminal proceedings begin in earnest, and the mountains of evidence of criminal wrongdoing is brought forth.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The author of the cartoon here conflates “capacity for critical thinking” and the “training to conduct scientific research,” even though they are two different things.

When it comes to space exploration, disease control, climate science, etc., all the critical thinking in the world is not going to get you one millimeter closer to the ability to draw your own conclusions.  If you’re honest with yourself, you realize that it’s a good idea simply to ask the scientists in whatever domain interests you what they believe and why.

I’m reminded of the perfectly well-meaning suggestions I’ve received throughout the years that I conduct my own research into climate change.   Flattering as it is, I’m no better equipped to do this than I am to perform open-heart surgery.

I’m perfectly comfortable knowing that thousands of honest, highly trained people, some of whom I have the pleasure of knowing personally, have made the study of climate change their life’s work, publish peer-reviewed papers on the subject, and make their conclusions available to me (and you).

If you think that makes me “gullible,” I don’t know what to say.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

There is no doubt that the author of the meme here has identified a problem with our food system, though I would argue that it’s not the problem.

In addition to potatoes, the recipe for McDonald’s French fries includes a range of fats, sugars, and salt.  The product is carefully engineered to overwhelm our population’s dopamine receptors associated with flavor.  In the absence of this programming, we would find fresh fruit incredibly delicious.

Want oranges and grapes to be desirable again?  All you have to do is remove the trillions of dollars from the fast-food industry.

 

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