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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Kudos to the author of the meme here.

People have been lamenting the hypocrisy of Christians since long before I was on this planet.  But the whole thing has got far more egregious in the last few years, as educational standards have fallen, the middle class has eroded, the working class has gotten angrier, the Republican party has squirted to the right, and social media has enabled the dissemination of misinformation and other truly horrible ideas.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

When we were young, my brother I loved the made-for-children television drama “Superman,” the intro for which included the idea that our caped hero “stands for truth, justice, and the American way.”

It’s funny that, looking back on those days, nobody growing up us seemed to wonder what the phrase “the American way” actually meant.  We all took it for granted that our country was the greatest on Earth, and thus, our “way” must be better and more righteous then anyone else’s.

This made eminent sense at the time–not only to us children, but to the “grown-ups” as well.

Shortly before we baby-boomers were born, our fathers had come home from World War II, having successfully saved human civilization from the scourge of fascism in Europe.  Long before the conflict was over, and possibly before it had begun, it was clear that fascism, like a cancer, with its fearsome power to destroy life, would have metastasized if the United States hadn’t joined the international fight for democracy and basic human rights.

Post war, our nation eagerly entered into an era of prosperity that would springboard off the advancements of the Depression Era: the New Deal, Social Security, and Medicare, that held the potential not only to reduce poverty greatly, but, by setting the stage for numerous further advancements, e.g., the Equal Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, might enable the United States to lead the world into a new epoch of affluence and human decency.

On top of, within moments after the end of the war, the U.S. sign the bipartisan G.I. Bill, providing low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business or farm, one year of unemployment compensation, and dedicated payments of tuition and living expenses to attend high school, college, or vocational school.

We took all this to heights never seen in human history.

If you can stomach it, at the left is what “the American way” means today.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In an earlier post I raised the question as to how it’s possible that Republicans believe they can win in 2024 with a platform of inflicting as much pain as possible on everyone but wealthy straight white males.

For those who think the Democrats are bound to sweep, however, there’s a problem: the broadspread hatred of Biden based on the mischaracterization of him as an old, senile socialist.  My mother detests Trump, but she is a life-long Republican, based on her conservative values and her disgust for Democrats generally.  If the presidential election were held today between Biden and Trump, she’d be forced to vote for Trump, as loathsome a character as she finds him to be.

The same can be said for virtually all the tens of millions of other traditional Republicans who understand that Trump is a despicable human being: they could never, under any circumstances, bring themselves to vote for a Democrat.

Now, you might ask what the political upshot will be when Trump is indicted on some combination of seditious conspiracy, election tampering, and theft of classified government documents.  The answer resides in whether or not it costs him the nomination.  If it doesn’t, Trump is no more endangered as a candidate than he would be if his bust were carved into Mount Rushmore.

Thus we’re left at the same spot at which we’ve found ourselves for years: the imperative to get all eligible voters to register and show up at the polls.  If we can do that effectively, no amount of unfounded rhetoric or voter suppression will return Trump to the White House.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This is hardly a new idea, but why aren’t these two despicable sub-humans concerning themselves with the fact that stupidity and cruelty aren’t going to work in a general election?

I’ll be the first to grant that there are many deep red states; i.e., our population of hateful morons extends well outside the state of Florida.  But it seems obvious that the Republicans cannot win with a platform of inflicting as much pain as possible on everyone but wealthy white males.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics
“I think the evidence is clear. The president refused to lift a finger to send aid after he incited a violent rebellion against our republic,” “The president, therefore, betrayed his oath of office and betrayed his constitution of duty.”
— Carolyn Maloney, Former U.S. Representative, New York
Exactly.  Whether or not Trump incited the insurrection can be argued.  What’s perfectly clear is that he made no effort to stop it for more than three hours, thus violating his oath of office.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you’re looking for a few minutes of amusement, tune in to Newsmax for a moment and watch them ridicule Fox News.

Fox recently discovered that spreading lies has the potential to turn into defamation lawsuits, and that these can be as expensive as hell. When they had that horrible realization, they got into a milder, less direct form of the  disinformation business, and are now far more measured in the claims they make.

Newsmax seizes on this opportunity, like a hungry bear just out of hibernation goes after its first salmon.  Most of their programming is shaming Fox for its abandonment of the principles of the ultra-right-wing: Trump is always right, the woke, godless left is a scourge to the nation, etc.

It’s worth a look.  A brief one.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

One has to applaud this Buddhist man of honor for what he says here.  But let’s examine his statement honestly and look at it straight in the eye.

Some would say that the subject of religion is inherently belligerent. For theistic religions, it comes down to this: My God is the only true God; yours is an imposter–and you’re an idiot for believing in such nonsense.  That’s a slap in the face any way you look at it.

Managing relations between the great tribes of the world’s nations, even if our differences could be resolved with reason, would be extremely difficult, especially now that we have disinformation sewn into our populations via the increasing influence of social media.

Add into that equation that God favors a certain tribe over others, and you have a total morass. As a person who happened to have been born in the United States, the idea that God should bless America over France, or Uruguay, is simply yet one more form of idiocy.

It’s just another way to inspire fools to go off to war for the economic interests of our country’s wealthiest.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s something that young people today may not be able to understand.

And just look at the intensity of the face on that kid.

Now, when I’m having breakfast, I’m praying for at least some level of evidence that the U.S. has somehow stopped its fall into authoritarianism.  Can we please have some indictments against the people who came within a gnat’s a** of overthrowing our government?

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Re: the question raised in the meme here, as much as I hate Trump and desperately want to see him face justice for his myriad crimes, I actually don’t think I could convict him of that particular crime.

If I were a juror and heard evidence that Trump, on the morning of January 6th, urged his to supporters to “go down to the Capitol and fight like hell, or you won’t have a country anymore,” I’m not sure I could convict him of seditious conspiracy, even though considerable violence ensued.

But his attorneys will say, “Yes, he used the word ‘fight.’  But he didn’t mean to resort to violence.  When MLK said that American negroes needed to ‘fight’ for their rights, he most certainly wasn’t urging black people to literally beat the pulp out of those who stood in their way.” Insofar as the standard of proof in criminal cases is guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, I would have to (begrudgingly) acquit him.

But what to make of us Trump’s watching the insurrection he had fomented–and its violence–on television for more than three hours before intervening. I’m not sure which criminal code that violates, but there must be one, if not dozens.  In the military, it’s called, at a very minimum, “dereliction of duty.”

What it’s called in the civilian code I can’t say, but he clearly declined to insert himself so as to avoid what is arguably the single most disgraceful moment in U.S. history.

The world around us, to this day, stands with its mouths collectively agape with the knowledge that the great United States of America came within a hair’s breadth of losing its democracy that day.  And we’re still nowhere close to having all the threats of autocracy put behind us.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Someone sent me this, and I thought it was funny; I hope readers will forgive the vulgarity.

I recall the moment I realized that Donald Trump had arrived on the political scene in 2015.  I called my mom and asked, “Wasn’t there an unwritten rule that a viable candidate for U.S. president couldn’t be a terrible human being?”

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