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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles
Here’s a little hate mail on my recent post: General Motors Building a New V-8 Engine:
At least someone in that company has the brains to build what the public wants not electric motors shoved up our butts.
There is more public than just you. That’s why they build both.
95 percent wants gas and diesel. The other 5 percent wants a overpriced electric inferior vehicle.
Well, I still wonder why an investment in companies that make paper clips or steer manure realized 20X more appreciation than General Motors over the last 58 years. I think my grandfather gave me 10 shares of GM @$32, costing him $320.  If my portfolio were completely composed of GM, I’d by living in a tent.
I would also point out that far more than 95% of Americans favored horses and carriages over automobiles when the car was first introduced around the turn of the 20th Century. And that was before there were externalities like baking our planet and killing our children over wars fought for access to oil.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

When I was a small boy in 1965, my grandfather bought me some stock in General Motors at $32 per share.  His purpose was to show me how wonderful capitalism is, by enabling me to see my money working for me, silently but powerfully.

GM closed today at $41.63, which means an annual appreciation of 0.45% over those 58 years.

I bring this up not to throw shade on my late grandfather’s prowess as an investor, but to bring into question GM’s competence in performing on its share-holders’ behalf.

I was reminded of this by their announcement that they will be spending $854 million in the development of yet one more V-8 engine, at a time when the entire world of transportation is turning electric.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The meme here comes from the Democratic Coalition.

In principle, these people have nailed it.  A DeSantis presidency, coupled with a conservative Supreme Court, could turn the United States into a white nationalist theocracy.

Anything that required government spending, e.g. public education, would become a casualty.  If you think our kids are falling behind now, see what four years of a DeSantis wrecking ball will do.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This from Donald Trump:

“Joe Biden’s weaponized Justice Department – and I’m a victim of it – is persecuting his political opponents. His administration is waging war on free speech. They’re trying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children,” Trump said in the video.

“He’s leading us to the brink of World War III. And on top of all of that, he’s the most corrupt president in American history.”

I know I’m not the only one wondering what’s going to take Trump down.  Most of us are hoping that he’ll be indicted for seditious conspiracy or something similar, and that a significant part of his base will come to its senses about its leader’s crimes.

Another tack that history may take here, albeit less sexy, could be that his followers grow tired of the torrent of bald-faced lies, e.g. those above, and simply move on to some other horrible person.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

What will that result in?  More and better teachers, and more richly educated young people, stemming the tide of America’s increasing irrelevance in the global marketplace.

That may sound noncontroversial, but it’s not.  There are plenty of people who don’t want any of this, and who are calling for generations of kids who have no more capacity to think for themselves than goldfish.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The meme here from a reader.

The United States is struggling to regain its former stature on the world stage, because there are certain forces pulling back towards stupidity and degradation.

Once our nation elected a common sociopath as its president in 2016, it opened up the door for people like Marjorie Taylor Greene to be taken seriously in American politics.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

One thing I find impressive about congressional Republicans is that they don’t mind taking positions that are completely outrageous.  Their determination to remove Social Security and Medicare stands out here.

I’ve paid into Social Security since I was 16, and the same can be said about almost all Americans my age (late 60s).  How on Earth do you think all these voters are going to feel about their money being taken from them?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

What next? Once you let government take action in healthcare that prevents poor people from dying from treatable diseases, you’re well on your way to having a government that actually helps the common American.

At that point, according to Republicans, you’ve become China, or perhaps worse, Denmark.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

… remains flat, hovering under 43%, almost 10% under his disapproval rating.

What does this reveal, given the job numbers at left?

Well, at a minimum, it shows that, whatever people may say about the importance of job growth, it doesn’t translate into their approval of a certain president.

This may have been different in the past, but today, in the age of Trumpism, all many people want from their leader is white nationalism, pain inflicted on the poor, an all-out assault on the environment, and any other conceivable means to “own the libs.”

 

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