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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There’s not too much chance of that.

These are insane times in terms of hated and ignorance, but still, the vast majority of Americans are decent, kind, and reasonably intelligent human beings.

Our nation’s appetite is very, very low for things like abortion bans, the proliferation of assault weapons, allowing our impoverished veterans to die of treatable diseases, re-electing a criminal conman to be the most powerful person in the world, and watching while the planet bakes in extreme heat.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From this:

Concord, North Carolina – A shocking and disturbing revelation has emerged in the case of 51-year-old Trump supporter Marian Hudak, who stands accused of engaging in a racist and xenophobic intimidation campaign against his neighbors. According to an FBI search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast, Hudak had amassed a disquieting collection of Nazi and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia at his North Carolina home, shedding light on the dark undercurrent of hatred that marred his interactions with people of color in the area.

Sorry to say, but this is anything but shocking.  If fact, it would be more shocking if the hate that Trump has unleashed were somehow not resonating with his base.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The world stands in astonishment at America’s moral and intellectual nosedive.

Until 2016, the U.S. was the world’s most powerful proof-point for the stability of democracy and trust in the concept of self-government.

Just a few years later, more than 40% of our nation’s voters support the world’s most flagrant criminal conman.  His lead over his Republican competitors is nothing short of commanding.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A reader asked me if I feel sorry for the billions of people believed to be burning in hell because they had the bad luck to be born on this Earth before the birth of Christ, and thus were unable to accept Him as their savior.

Actually, there are other groups of supposedly eternally tortured souls that equally evoke my pity, especially the approximately 9 million kids who die each year before their 5th birthday, largely via malnutrition and the diseases that derive from it.  They were unfortunately born on parts of this planet in which Christianity is unknown, e.g., Africa and Asia.  That’s 6.1 billion people, a bit over three-quarters of the planet’s total (7.9 billion).

These children are roasting in the same hell that’s roasting, for all eternity, with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Gandhi, and all the other intellectual and moral giants that our civilization has produced over the millennia.

The concept of hell is one that can only be accepted by our most cruel and stupid.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

This is funny, I admit, but I don’t think most people have a problem with hunters who eat what they kill.

This is not morally equivalent to factory meat farming, and the clearing of our rainforests to support the beef industry.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The dude is NRA-endorsed in the great state of Missouri.

Does anything else really matter? Understanding of complex economic problems?  Compassion for the needy?  Social justice?

No, it looks like the only real priority is the proliferation of weapons.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

We’ve all seen evidence of the current trend to label everything we don’t like politically as extreme or radical.  The pro-lifers talk about Biden’s “extreme position on abortion.” The NRA talks about Biden’s “radical position on gun control.”

The meme at left came from a reader, who, IMO, makes an excellent point.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a comedian with a frighteningly accurate description of life in America.  His bit, “some people don’t want to talk about politics,” gets at the heart of lots of folks’ reasoning: we’re not personally affected, so why should we care?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Spot on.  Who hasn’t observed this in his own life?

I’m not sure whose idea this was originally, but it certainly predates Bukowski; I’m going with Bertrand Russell.

This whole concept goes back to “Socratic wisdom,” i.e., the idea that the only thing he knows is that his knowledge is limited.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Earlier this week, a Florida man and his three adult sons were convicted in a Florida court of selling industrial bleach as a cure for COVID-19 through their online “church.”

This is reminiscent of the criminal proceedings against the 1000+ January 6th insurrectionists, in that a defense case can be made that the then-president of the United States authorized their actions. Yet the judge hearing the case saw no mitigating circumstances.  Sentencing is set for October.

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