Happy New Year!

[Rob Beckers]

Happy New Year everyone!
Can't believe it's 2020 already! Time flies when you're having fun...

I wish everyone lots of renewable energy this year! :cool:

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Hi Rob and fellow green energy folk.

It's a very grim start to the year in Australia, with bushfires up and down the east coast, in South Australia and my home state of Western Australia. Lives have been lost (8+ so far) and more than 1,000 homes destroyed. Whole townships have gone up in smoke and in two states, in an unprecedented move, people are being forced to evacuate their homes to escape the "red devil". After being forced to return from his holiday with his family in Hawaii, when pressed about what his government intends to do about climate change, our Prime Minister Scott Morrison, simply says be patient and stay calm. This is the start of a long hot, dry summer with the prospect of much more catastrophic fires in the future.

This is the same fool who brought a lump of coal into Parliament saying "It won't hurt you".

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/11/scott-morrison-coal-climate-change/

Yes, a grim start to the year indeed.:eek:

[Andy Rhody]

Yes, Happy New Year and I'm making good energy here in Central Pa. USA. especially since I got my windmill back in service.

Joe my Heart goes out to Australia. Unbelievable.

As far as you're Prime Minister goes, we have enough problems with the one we got over here. In fact I think he almost started a War last week.

God Bless us all.

[Rob Beckers]

Andy, Happy New Year! Good to hear from you!

It seems more and more (what should be) democratic countries are getting worse and worse government, to the point where there's very little "governing" going on, and it all becomes just a political game with those in the seats making sure to do well for themselves. Unfortunately this country, Canada, is not immune to that either. Just look at our Ontario provincial government.

So who's to blame? At the end of the day it is the voters, at least in countries that still have free elections. They are the ones putting those nitwits in power. You can't really blame the politicians; there is always going to be a segment of the population that has the right combination of self-interest, narcissism, ruthlessness, and a loose relationship with the truth, that will see opportunity in political/elected jobs.

It doesn't help of course that Democracy (with a capital "D") is unfortunately very fragile. It is easy to manipulate populations; a person may be smart, a group rarely is. It is easy to abuse democratic systems (the most money wins, control of the media wins etc.). I wish kids would be taught in school from a young age to develop critical thinking, to question what 'government' tells them, and especially to question what comes out of the mouth of politicians on the campaign trail. We wouldn't be in this mess if politicians were actually held to higher standards, such as the truth (or you're out).

The irony is of course that the rare person running for any elected office that actually speaks the truth has no chance whatsoever to get elected in today's races...

-RoB-

[Andy Rhody]

Well said Rob.Yes democracies are fragile. We voted our president in so in a way we deserve it.what's scary is over 40% of our population follow anything he says or does without question. They follow the Pied Piper. I've never seen anything like it.hi

[Joe Blake]

It's hard to get the truth when the media plants itself squarely on one side of the political fence. I was chatting with a USA friend on Second Life a couple of days ago and she mentioned an article she'd read in the (US) mainstream media saying that there had been over a hundred people arrested for arson, starting many of the fires, (which, thanks to some rain, are slowly being controlled, but still a long row to hoe) whereas in fact a very small number of people have been arrested.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/world/australia/fires-murdoch-disinformation.html

This article gives a pretty clear picture of what's happening in terms of bias in the media.

ScoMo (a self-conferred moniker of our Prime Monster, Scott Morrison - he used to work in advertising) has admitted that there needs to be a thorough investigation into the fires, including their causes. But given that it'll be probable that his own (and previous Coalition - ie conservative) government will come out of any such investigation with a very poor look, means that it will fail because of lack of support within said Coalition.

The politics of this problem are mind blowing with the Coalition standing its ground in defence of coal.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-08/scott-morrison-holds-a-lump-of-coal-in-parliament/11091818

Mind you, this was before he was elected back into office last year.

Since the summer is just barely under way, look forward to more fires and more backing and filling with ScoMo trying to walk either side of a barbed wire fence.