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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff oversaw the goings-on in the White House in the period in which the former president tried desperately to retain power following his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Now, it appears that, because of his participation in Trump’s attempt to overthrow the U.S. federal government, Meadows has agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge than seditious conspiracy so as to avert a life prison sentence.

Evidently, there is no honor among traitors.

If, in fact, Meadows had been sentenced to die in prison, that would have been completely acceptable to those of us who care about the continuation of American democracy.

If he gets a lesser sentence, and his boss goes down hard, that’s also totally fine, IMO.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

At this point in his career, John Boehner has the luxury of being able to tell the truth, since he’s no longer a viable Republican political candidate.

Isn’t that, in and of itself, disgusting?  As long as you have even an iota of potential in GOP politics, you either perpetuate Trump’s lies, or go back to ambulance chasing or lobbying for the planet-destroyers, or whatever other revolting professional you had before your “public service” aspirations.

It’s not like you or I never lie.  Occasionally, even the most honest among us finds himself in a position where fibbing is the best way out of an awkward position.  But decent people hate to find themselves in that situation.

It’s hard for most of us to even imagine fashioning our lives around nonstop lies.  I’m not a billionaire king, but at least I wake up every morning in the comfort of knowing that I’m not Donald Trump.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Actually, you have a choice.  You read the crap described at left in an effort to prove to yourself what you already believe.

Alternatively, you can travel to any of the other developed countries around the globe and see for yourself that the United States is the only wealthy nation on the planet that does not offer its citizens universal healthcare (see below).

Tour Europe and Scandinavia and discover that these people are better educated and happier than we are.   Obviously, they’re healthier, and thus live longer lives.

This latter choice will push you outside of the comfort zone that Fox News offers you, but maybe you’ll actually learn something.

 

Countries with Universal Healthcare

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

My #1 thought about American education is that Ben Carson can only worsen it further.

We had four years of a full frontal attack on our schools during the Trump years when Betsy DeVos was the Secretary of Education; we don’t need any more obstruction from these saboteurs.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Trump may resent Fox News for its occasional criticism.  But not surprisingly, Fox is 100% behind the former president in 2024.

There is no doubt that he “has a proven record.”  Unfortunately, it includes 30K+ lies, two impeachments, and a 34-count fraud indictment, not to mention election tampering, seditious conspiracy and other felonies.

Will America re-elect a career criminal to a second term in the White House?  It just might.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

We live in challenging times for all Americans.

As suggested by the meme at the left, the fine folks from Wyoming who are as conservative as U.S. voters can get, recoil at Trump’s “ego.”  But is his ego, the core problem?

No. Lots of high-flyers have huge egos, but they’re not career criminals. He’s among the very worst human beings that the world has ever known.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s another reminder that the present-day politics of the United States bears a certain resemblance to that of Germany in the 1930s/40s.

We cannot normalize criminal behavior in our leaders–especially that which threatens to overthrow our democracy.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The screen cap here is from a video in which Ted Nugent explains how EMP Shield provides electromagnetic pulse (EMP) protection for your home.

Somewhere, there are people who trust Ted Nugent to give them advice on technology.

I want to stay as far away from there as possible.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Legendary quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger said: “Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”

Quite a statement, but is it true?  Certainly, humankind has made little if any progress with respect to understanding what makes up consciousness.  In Western philosophy, the phenomenologists say that “to be conscious is to be conscious of an object”–as if that gets us anywhere.

But are we saying it can’t be explained at all? Or maybe Schrödinger’s using the word “physical” to introduce the idea that consciousness has a spiritual element.

Who knows?  I’m not predicting some sort of breakthrough before I leave this planet in the next couple of decades.  But I hesitate to claim that a certain thing — anything — is immune to our comprehension.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

At left we see the decisions that Allstate and State Farm have made re: climate change.

If you live in a trailer park and get your “news” from Fox, Newsmax, and QAnon, you’re probably a climate denier, an anti-vaxxer, a Trump supporter, and so on down the line.  This is a free country, and thus you’re at liberty to hold those views, and, if you’ve achieved middle-age, there is very little additional cost to you. You’re not wealthy, you never will be, and your ignorance can’t cost you any more going forward than it already has.

However, think for a moment of the people who made it to the top of their respective fields.  If that field happens to be insurance, imagine that you manage the strategic investment decisions of Allstate or State Farm.  You’re one of very few who are held to account for the intelligent direction of hundreds of billions of dollars.  You must have been extremely intelligent, advancing far beyond your peers.  Above all, you didn’t achieve this station in life by absorbing right-wing disinformation.

Can you be at the top of the insurance industry with profoundly conservative values?  Sure, but not if those ideas led you to “news” sources that caused you to reject science, or you would have been cut off at the knees if you wanted to advance beyond selling auto or term- or whole-life to the now-grown kids you knew in high school.  You’d be no closer to the upper echelon of the insurance industry than you’d be to flying to the moon on a skate board.

In the final analysis, no one cares what utter crap you believe.  Just don’t think that pure bulls*** is going to take you anywhere in a world that has anything whatsoever to do with big money.  Nature abhors a vacuum.  Big money abhors stupidity.

 

 

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