Nice Time

Planet Earth Is One Hot Mama, And That Just Might Save Us

We're talking enhanced geothermal, kids!

I often worry that climate nihilism or climate despair may now be a greater threat to taking action than flat out climate denial is. The good news is that governments and industry are finally taking steps we need, and we're already seeing encouraging news. (Here, have a gift link to David Wallace-Wells's article explaining why the most dire predictions of just a few years ago are now less likely.)

The once unthinkable is now national policy: The US is actually committed to shifting away from the fossil fuel economy. Not fast enough yet, but measures like last year's Inflation Reduction Act are nothing to sneeze at, either, providing a boost to the clean energy transition, and clean energy jobs, that really should be cause for optimism. There are some incredibly smart people working on moving that transition along, and a hell of a lot of money to be made, too. So let's talk about enhanced geothermal energy, an energy technology that, along with solar, wind, hydro, and some nuclear, may have the capacity to save humanity's bacon. (OK, sure, eating less meat would also help there.)

As rightwingers will happily remind you, the big drawback to wind and solar is that the wind doesn't always blow and the sun does that "night" thing every day.

Keep reading...Show less
Nice Time

Joe Biden Just Throwing Affordable Insulin At America Like Paper Towels After A Hurricane

If you've been planning to get diabetes, now's your chance!

Joe Biden's woke agenda of reducing the cost of insulin keeps rolling forward, inflicting significant out of pocket savings on Americans with diabetes, who need the drug to stay alive. It all started last summer, when the Inflation Reduction Act reduced the cost of insulin for folks on Medicare to $35, although Senate Republicans voted down a matching price cap for everyone else, just to be big jerks. (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema did not join them on the jerk train that time, we checked.)

Then, at the start of this month, after Biden called for a national price cap on insulin in his State of the Union address, Pharma giant Eli Lilly announced it would cap its price for two of its most widely prescribed insulins to $35 per month, for people on insurance and for uninsured folks. Biden called on other manufacturers to follow suit, and now that's happening, so we're certain Donald Trump will take credit for it.

Keep reading...Show less
Guns

Month After MSU Campus Shootings, Michigan Dems Pass New Gun Control Bills

None of these laws could have stopped the shooter, unless they had.

The Michigan state Senate yesterday passed several gun control bills that will expand background checks, create a "red flag" law that will allow judges to remove firearms from people who are at risk of committing violence, and require safe storage of guns in homes where children are present.

The bills were passed a month and a couple days after the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing, which killed three students and left five others wounded. The shooter in that incident shot himself when confronted by police. The MSU shooting itself occurred the night before the five-year anniversary of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida; as we noted at the time, it won't be long until every day on the calendar is the anniversary of a horrific mass shooting.

The package of 11 bills passed on a mostly party-line vote by Democrats, who last fall won majorities in both houses of the Michigan Legislature. Two Republicans crossed party lines to vote for a pair of bills that will exempt firearms safety devices — trigger locks, gun safes and the like — from taxes for one year. Hard to say if that will be enough of a betrayal of the Holy Second Amendment for those two to be censured by the state GOP. It's a tax break, so maybe they'll get away with it.

Keep reading...Show less
Education

Mean Federal Court Still Won't Let Ron DeSantis Cast Woke Demons Out Of Colleges

But ... but ... that means the woke will keep woking!

Wokeness and critical race theory and Marxist indoctrination can continue to run rampant in Florida colleges and universities after a federal court ruled Thursday to keep in place an injunction against enforcing the "Stop WOKE" Act. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration to please let it stop some woke, even just a little, while the case is being decided.

In November, US District Judge Mark Walker determined the law, which would restrict how colleges and universities can teach about race and gender, was unconstitutional as all fuck, because what part of free speech don't you understand? In a remarkably fun decision to read, Walker called the law "positively dystopian" and cited George Orwell in his order, adding that the bill's formal name, the "Individual Freedom Act," was a dandy example of doublespeak.

As we said at the time, it's awfully refreshing to see an invocation of Orwell by someone who has actually read and understood the dear old lifelong socialist who thought basic human decency might yet have a chance against totalizing ideologies.

Keep reading...Show less
Donate

How often would you like to donate?

Select an amount (USD)

Newsletter

©2018 by Commie Girl Industries, Inc