Home › Blog › Page 32

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Anyone wondering why Borowitz is considered a national treasure need only read this brief column.

Borowitz Report—The president of Mexico announced on Monday that her country was building a wall along its northern border to keep newly-pardoned January 6 insurrectionists from pouring across it. “The United States is opening its prisons and releasing its most heinous criminals,” President Claudia Sheinbaum declared. “This leaves us with no choice but to build a wall and make the United States pay for it.”

Describing the January 6 convicts, she said, “When the United States sends its people, they’re sending people who have a lot of problems. They’re sending people who riot, vandalize government property, and attack law enforcement. They’re not sending their best.”

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m sure Stephen King was sincere in what he said here, but mightn’t this all work out OK?

Sure, the United States has decommitted to helping the planet avoid environmental collapse, and has consolidated power in the executive branch, establishing a criminal sociopath as its absolute ruler.  Yes, we’re making our educational system as ineffective as we possibly can, while violating domestic and international laws with our treatment of immigrants. Moreover, we’re doing everything we can to promote hate, marginalization and exclusion among our people.

These truly are terrible times for the U.S., and thus, indirectly, the rest of the world.  Yet hope springs eternal.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Many of history’s great scientists, Einstein in particular, remarked on our fragile position on Earth, and cautioned us to be kind to one another. Carl Sagan was another vocal proponent of the unity of humankind.  At left is what the 20th Century intellectual giant Buckminster Fuller had to say on the subject.

It’s worth noting that,  in contrast, none of our most intelligent ancestors said, “Ya know what?  Screw other people. If they can’t fend for themselves and make a success of themselves under capitalism, let them starve, or at least, suffer.”

A friend of mine has a huge client in Helsinki, and he asked me the other day if I was aware that Finland was perennially at the top or near of the World Happiness Rankings.  I smiled, and replied that I happen to write about this frequently on 2GreenEnergy.com.  I went on to explain that there are several key differences between that region of the world and the U.S., but that two of them are major.  Scandinavians pay higher taxes, but:

1) They derive huge benefits in terms of free college education and healthcare.  They don’t have people who live without education simply because they can’t afford tuition, and they don’t have people dying of treatable diseases because they don’t have health insurance.

2) They live with a sense of community that is extremely rare in the United States.  Sure, we have the Amish and ethic communities like our Chinatowns and Little Italys.  But in the main, as a Swede I met recently told me, Americans caring about the welfare of others are almost completely nonexistent.

 

 

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Most Americans’ perceptions of Texas are fairly negative, insofar as the state is known for Big Oil, cruelty to immigrants, and its status as the death penalty capital of the United States.

But what about Austin, the south’s Mecca of live music and one of our nation’s most important points of the development of cutting-edge technology?

At left are the words of American science and environmental journalist Andrew Revkin, who has written on a wide range of subjects including the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, sustainable development, climate change, and the changing environment around the North Pole.

If I had the slightest reason to be in Austin a few days from now, it would be a great honor to be in this man’s presence.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Re: Trump’s action here, a reader remarks:

Same as his first term following Obama. Just reverse everything good or bad to eliminate any legacy of their time as President. It is also important that the opposing political party’s successes be forgotten so they can’t score favorably in future elections.

There is clearly a lot of truth here.

I would only add that there is also a motivation to excite the far-right-wing, especially the anti-intellectual MAGA crowd.  Promote white nationalism.  Pardon violent pro-Trump criminals.  Punish the immigrants.  Destroy the environment and bake the planet.  Kill public education.  Jettison medical science.

In any case, this is a tragedy for 99+% of Americans, and less directly, for all the world’s people and its other life forms.   The United States is led by a man whose only concern is his own wealth and power, who is completely happy to inflict suffering on his country’s people if doing so serves his own ends.

Tagged with: , , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A reader just sent me a note to the effect that his dentist has Fox News broadcasting into his waiting room, and that his hygienist asked if he wanted the volume turned up or down.

I had to laugh.  When my wife and I owned a horse-breeding ranch that required a nonstop supply of plumbing parts whose local supplier forced its customers to watch Fox New in its checkout queue I stopped buying from them. If I wouldn’t buy PVC piping from these idiots, do you think I want to have my teeth worked on by the same type of moron?

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I seriously doubt that any significant percentage of the MAGA base will ever recognize that they got screwed by Trump’s policies.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The groups listed at left are certainly under pressure at this point.

But let’s not forget about everybody living on a warming planet who may not have the wherewithal to pack up and leave their homelands that are becoming uninhabitable.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

The environmental action group One5c.com points out that Trump’s efforts to trash our planet so as to benefit the fossil fuel industry are often unsuccessful. They write:

The good news is that climate and public health advocates have been keeping a close eye on things, including moves that can be challenged in court. During Trump’s first term, states and environmental groups filed hundreds of lawsuits against the administration, and the vast majority were successful, including a suit that spurred the courts to strike down a Trump policy called the Affordable Clean Energy rule that would have increased carbon pollution at many coal-fired power plants.

Another piece of good news is that progressives, by their very nature, are tenacious; we tend not to give up in tough times like these.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Does anyone think the people who re-elected Donald Trump could possibly give a damn about his ripping off his non-profit that purportedly fought against childhood cancer?

This is part of his very DNA, and his supporters rejoice in it.

With great exuberance, a friend told me, “He always wins!”

Two points:

Not sure that means much to decent people.

Undefeated people always win…until they lose.

 

Tagged with: