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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As one who wants to see justice meted out to Donald Trump, I wish I could infer a good meaning here.  It looks, however, like his former CFO, a career criminal now 74, is willing to die in prison to protect his former boss.

Yet I suppose it’s possible that his guilty plea accompanies his willingness to provide testimony against Trump and a reduced sentence.

This, of course, is what RICO was put into place to deal with: businesses that are front groups for organized crime.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change
This from the Sierra Club:
President Biden signed into law the most consequential climate change legislation in history. We want to express our gratitude to every Sierra Club member and supporter who has worked tirelessly to secure climate action over the years. This bill isn’t perfect, and we will continue to fight against any efforts to weaken our environmental protections or greenlight additional fossil fuel infrastructure.  After years of work, our efforts made this game-changing bill possible — THANK YOU!
Great news for those of us who sometimes question the effectiveness of our actions.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Two quick comments:

Sure, supporting Trump requires stupidity, but don’t forget about meanness.  To like Trump means that you hate the same people as he does: people of color (especially if they’re Muslims or immigrants), as well as environmentalists, abortion-rights advocates, and other people of compassion.

Keep in mind that people like Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Greg Abbott may be the new normal in Republican politics.  There is no guarantee that someone won’t come along in the future that will require even more stupidity (and meanness) than what we live among today.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The text here translates as “The next big evolutionary jump will be humankind’s discovery that cooperation is better than competition.”

This is an increasingly important concept as planetary resources become scarcer, and a business-as-usual approach means the slow but certain collapse of our life-supporting ecosystems.  But does it seem even remotely possible?

In the United States, we’re hungrily removing as many features of cooperation as possible.  Any attempt to fashion a government that does anything to help the common American is derided as the socialism of the radical left.

Roughly half of U.S. voters favor “America First” candidates.  They’re proud to elect leaders who support the concept: “Screw the 96% of people who live in the rest of the world.  We want it all.”

That’s a recipe for death.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

People have been saying things like “water is the oil” for as long as I can remember, but the droughts caused by climate change are affecting large populations of people and other life forms.

The scarcity of potable water in particular in India and Africa is especially worrisome.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

In the spirit of keeping up on conspiracy theories, I present the meme at left.

I’m hoping this is a fad that will vanish as mysteriously as it arrived.

Can you imagine, 20 years ago, telling people that a certain election was rigged, even though you had no evidence for it whatsoever?  Someone would have thrown a net over you.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The meme here is a joke, of course, but it points to something very real, and quite important, in this time where so many people reject all evidence they see around them in order to hold on to one or more strange and unsupportable beliefs.

If that weren’t the case, Trump would have literally no support, common sense gun laws would pass easily, and we’d be working climate change mitigation full-bore.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics
From an old friend (pictured at left):
On Monday evening my daughter and her roommate, who live in Center City (Philadelphia), walked the short walk from their apartment to the Art Museum to watch the 4th of July celebratory fireworks display. They sat down on the curb across from Eakins Oval at about 9:30 to enjoy the show. Within 2 minutes of settling in, shots rang out through the area and they were back on their feet sprinting down the Parkway along with the rest of the crowd – fleeing another possible American sniper taking pot shots at fellow Americans. This, hours after 7 people were killed and dozens more wounded in an Illinois suburb of Chicago. 
I’m 67 years old. I was 13 in the spring of 1968 when two leaders with immense promise were gunned down in this country. I remember waking up on the morning of June 6th of that year to the news of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination and feeling dismay, disbelief and anger. I am feeling the same feelings today.
This country I so love is falling apart at the seams and I feel helpless. The gun culture in this country is absurd.
Yes, it’s a combination of the corruptive effects of the gun lobby, and a population whose concentration of hateful idiots is rising with each passing year.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Stephen King:

If Penguin Random House gets its way, it will soon own Simon & Schuster—leaving only four major publishers in an industry that once had dozens.

In a country built on free press, where Common Sense helped launch the Revolutionary War and The Grapes of Wrath helped spark the New Deal, the idea of just four white CEOs deciding what books reach the shelves is nothing less than alarming. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

We need to admit that we live in strange times.

Yet that doesn’t make Trump’s torrent of conflicting excuses for being in possession of stolen classified documents any easier to swallow.

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