– The technology already exists to power a car or truck from solar panels (actually any-available-light-absorbing panels — it doesn’t have to be sunlight), that can store power in a battery for night driving. The problem is not enough money has been provided by govt or industry to make these cars affordable. If we did a ‘moon landing’ commitment to this kind of renewable energy, we could be free of the oil teat in a decade — not that I think that will happen. There will, tragically, have to be a complete global economic collapse — it’s coming — before the ‘power elite’ wake up.

– A friend told me he travelled from France to Germany on a train that was not high-speed rail but he got there comfortably in a few hours. The tracks were old and rusty, and the train an upgraded electric built in the ’60s, but much faster than the trains of that era. We already have these trains if there was the political will to upgrade them. Again, short of a financial collapse, it ain’t gonna happen.

Unfortunately, Obama seems to be tied to trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube and take our country’s financial system back to the booming ’90′s. That, also, ain’t gonna happen.