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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I just ran across this bumper sticker, but I’m having trouble figuring out what it means.  Here are a few suggestions.

The rules have changed in that:

1) Now someone, in this case a former president, can be indicted, tried and convicted of felony charges for crimes like business fraud, incitement of an insurrection, theft of classified government documents, and conspiracy to overthrow the United States federal government.

2) If one side loses, it can claim, without a shred of evidence, that the voting was rigged against them.

3) This country may be on the brink of ridding itself of the electoral college, which would eliminate the advantage that candidates have in states with a tiny population, like Wyoming, the Dakotas, etc.

I’m honestly struggling to understand this.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a blurb I came across on social media, in which a boyhood friend makes an important point about the use of the words “capitalism” and “socialism.”  If it seems familiar, it’s because it’s the same concept that I’ve been writing about for years. He begins:

Let’s make sure we are defining “Capitalism” and “Socialism” in the same way so that we’re speaking the same language. Per Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

“In the modern era, “pure” socialism has been seen only rarely and usually briefly in a few Communist regimes. Far more common are social democracies, such as Sweden and Denmark: democratically elected governments that employ some socialist practices but within a capitalist framework in the belief that extensive state regulation paired with limited state ownership produces a fair distribution of income without impairing economic growth. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”

But what is a free market? If a free market is strictly defined as “an economic system in which prices are based on competition among private businesses and are not controlled or regulated by a government,” then price controls, tariffs, etc. would be forbidden. However, a pure free market has never existed. Adam Smith recognized this and that externalities, such as the town commons, exist and must be accommodated. Thus, there has never been pure capitalism. There has always been an element of socialism to handle the inequities of externalities. IMO.

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I would only add that an astonishingly large number of Americans haven’t been able to think this out.  How many of the people who despise our country’s “wokeness” want to privatize things like infrastructure, public education, fire fighting, national defense, criminal justice, disaster recovery, and the dozens of other services that benefit all of us? I think I speak for damn near everyone when I said that, if my house is on fire, I want a taxpayer-funded fire department to come and put it out.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business, Uncategorized

Without a doubt, the word “fascist” is overused in modern-day American politics.  This is understandable, given the mutual finger-pointing that has become so common in our discourse.  A great example from the Clinton-Trump debate in 2016:

Clinton: “Trump is a puppet of Putin.”

Trump:  “Puppet?  You’re the puppet.”

Having said all this, what are we to make of the general’s statement? Well, one could infer that Mark Milley, who served under Trump as the nation’s 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is some sort of woke socialist who actually hates the United States.

That’s a considerable stretch, but one wonders how Trump supporters deal with news items like this one.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

At left is a brief discussion on the subject of public schooling, and, in particular, the question of who should make the decisions re: curricula.  The author suggests that the “client” to be served by public education is not the parents of the children, but rather society itself.

A couple of examples in support of this idea:

1) Science

Society is best served by educating kids in the basic sciences.  For example, the theory of evolution is the accepted scientific theory as to how all this plant and animal life got here.  Creationism isn’t a valid scientific alternative, and thus shouldn’t be taught as if it were.

The woman who taught my kids science in the local public school tells her class at the end of the year, “Now you know what scientists tell us about these subjects.  Are there other ideas?  Yes, for instance, that an all-powerful God created the universe and populated the Earth with various life forms.  If you like, you can attend a church and pursue this concept, but it’s not what they pay me to teach.”

A reader suggests that failing to teach science is a form of our child abuse.  I think he’s nailed something quite important there.

2) History

The best ideas in teaching of U.S. history reside in making sure our kids understand that slavery was an extremely important, albeit cruel, institution in the development of the southern part of our nation–even if that doesn’t support the notion of American exceptionalism and our nation’s moral superiority.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s another example of how Americans have somehow, and fairly suddenly, lost their ability to think.

Trump will say something that any five-year-old would immediately reject, but that statement will be adopted as fact by tens of millions of the former president’s adult supporters.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Obama makes a good point here.  Who does that?

The problem: there is nothing that Trump could possibly do or say that would be too strange, too far out there, too indicative of a mental illness–thus causing his supporters to re-examine their positions on the former president.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

IMO, the content of the meme at left is one of the very best ideas ever propounded by humankind. It speaks to the subject of “cognitive biases,” a big deal nowadays.  However, it’s been attributed to essentially everyone in history.  Who said it first?  Best?

We’ve all read the quote, “All that’s required for evil to conquer the world is that good men do nothing.”  Have you ever noticed that it’s attributed to everyone from Albert Einstein to Edmund Burke to Napoleon Bonaparte?

FWIW, I’m going with Bertrand Russell as the true owner of the quote relating certainty with stupidity.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From a reader:  A message written on the back of an SUV quickly went viral after being shared online.

To those wondering how it’s possible that Trump could be re-elected, I offer you this “viral” meme.  Apparently, its author (and those who so enthusiastically shared it) are too stupid to realize that Trump himself redistributed approximately $4 trillion during his term in office, looting the U.S. treasury and sending that money in the form of enormous tax cuts to line the pockets of the very wealthiest Americans.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In a recent post I wrote that I believe that ultimately it will be revealed that Trump has an unlovely relationship with Putin, perhaps only insofar as Trump worships Putin, and envies his position as absolute ruler.  It’s true that Putin controls every aspect of Russian life, especially how the media portrays him to the people, and this is exactly what Trump wants to achieve here in the U.S.

As Connecticut senator Chris Murphy says, it would have been impossible to foresee that this country could come to the brink of electing a president who so clearly has committed treason against his own people.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

From “David Attenborough Fans”: 150 ft. Iceberg passing through Iceberg Alley near Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada.

Only a few of us live around see in-your-face evidence of glaciers calving and floating around in our front yards.  Yikes.

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