Home › Blog › Page 199

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Earlier, I wrote a post on how Trump never quits, never apologizes, and never backs down.

In response to the meme here, reader Luke Renna offers this:  Shut up, you f***ing fraud. You’re not going to get your way this time, Mr. Privilege, because if you do all hell will break loose and I think you know what I’m talking about.

I have bad news, Luke.  The fact that “all hell will break loose” when the former president is arrested is something that Trump knows very well, and is, in fact, what he’s counting on to extort the U.S. government into sweeping his numerous crimes under the rug.

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Much has been said about Trump’s fabulous capacity for self-incrimination.

A great example is the theft of the classified government documents, where Trump has claimed a) they’re classified, b) they’re declassified, and c) in either case, he’s allowed to have them by virtue of the “Presidential Records Act.”

Good luck with that.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I urge readers not to be outraged by the meme here, for two reasons:

a) This guy’s in Idaho, which has joined the race to the bottom, and may already have a lead on Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and the rest.

b) Not that the United States doesn’t have issues with its Supreme Court, but at long as Idaho is part of the country, it will be unable to enforce laws that violate all notions of sanity and decency.

Relax.  Don’t let vermin like this ruin your day.

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Among Trump’s “special gifts” is his tenacity.  He never quits, never apologizes, never backs down.

We can expect attacks like the one here straight through to the time he goes to prison, or flees the country in an effort to stay free.

The problem he’ll be facing is that the majority of his supporters, both in Congress and the electorate, don’t share his dogged persistence.  As the indictments continue to rain down, most of these folks will eventually conclude that Trump really is no more than a criminal conman, and move on.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

At left is a clever reminder that cleantech is the defining industry for the 21st Century, and that vigorous participation in it will result in enormous prosperity along with a planet that continues to support life.

 

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I agree with the author of the meme at left, but I would broaden it.

Pride means respecting each other, regardless of our sexual preferences.

I understand that empathy is not exactly in vogue in the United States right now, but I’d like to think that Americans are better people than the presence of the MAGA homophobes might suggest.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Those who follow comedian Bill Maher have noticed that a great deal of his current shtick pokes fun at progressives, and has come to support right-wing causes.

The other day he did a bit that I paraphrase as such: When it comes to achieving environmental sustainability, I don’t know what does work, but I can tell you what doesn’t work: asking people to make sacrifices. 

He went on to back up his assertion with some photos of big, stupid, cars and trucks that an admittedly significant portion of Americans still adore, e.g. this version of the F-150, at 12 MPG.

This cynicism may be immensely profitable in Hollywood; after all, ideas like wokeness and decency seem to have, at least for now, fallen out of fashion in the United States. But the photo at the above left is an example of what the Dutch have done with their country, in which people actually give a s***.

The folks in the Netherlands have abandoned selfish, idiotic behavior, and treat our planet with the respect it deserves.  For them, 21st Century transportation is about bicycles and trains.  They’d no more drive the truck shown here than they’d urinate in their own Jacuzzis.

What’s up with Maher?  Just another media whore?  At best, he’s way off base when it comes to understanding who we are as human beings when it comes to dealing with the threat of environmental collapse.

He makes money.  Others, like the Dutch, make change.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

After a second catastrophic failure, Agile Wind Power is removing its giant VAWT from the Grevenbroich test site.

From this:

The dismantlement follows the second failure of the test turbine (see photo).

The Swiss company has been developing the mammoth giromill for the past decade. The prototype has been undergoing tests at Grevenbroich for the past three years.

The turbine previously lost one of its three rotor arms in November 2020. The Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT), one of the largest ever built, was reinstalled in August 2022. Testing began again when the turbine was reconnected to the grid in October 2022.

Here’s some unsolicited advice to the world of renewable energy engineering: Focus on areas where real improvement is at least conceivable.  The horizontal-axis wind turbines we see all around us convert over 90% of the theoretically available kinetic energy in the wind into electricity.  That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for improvement.

 

 

 

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The political analysts we see on TV are telling us that DeSantis is “going after” Trump, though, if that’s happening at all, it’s in the most lily-livered manner possible.

A true political attack on the part of DeSantis would look something like this:

American voters elected Trump in 2016, but that was before we realized that he is a criminal.  He’s a sex abuser, he’s indicted on 34 counts of fraud, he was impeached twice, he’s under investigation for election tampering, seditious conspiracy and theft of classified government documents.  The evidence available to us all is 100% damning. He’s also a pathological liar; he’s no more electable than George Santos.  

Republicans are fine and honest people with conservative values.  They fight for what makes America the greatest country on Earth.  They are not criminals, and are certainly unwilling to elect one to the highest office in the land.  

Now, there is a clear reason that DeSantis is not doing that, namely, that Trump has so much support, at least right this minute, that such a statement would be political suicide.

I counter as follows:  Ron, eventually, someone has to do it. You know and I know it. Why not do it now and be a hero?  I personally won’t be voting for you, but I would greatly admire your courage.  I’m sure the same can be said about most Americans.

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s a common thought among baby boomers whose fathers fought the Second World War: How would Dad have felt about this rise of the neo-Nazis in the United States?  How would he regard a U.S. president who, in response to a Nazi rally in Charlottesville said, “There were fine people on both sides?”

I never had the opportunity to speak with my father about this directly before he died in 2010, though I recall how disgusted he was when it was revealed to all the world that his country was operating torture chambers in Abu Ghraib. I have a feeling that he’d be just as sickened by young racist morons who really have no understanding of the true American values of fairness, decency, and rule of law.

Tagged with: