We can call it Cash for Clunkers.

Unless the "cash" is enough to replace the "clunker" with a reasonably new car, it's not going to work. $5K more than the clunker is worth gives you enough money to buy another clunker, and not much else....

Please note that 5.5% of our arable land covered in solar panels (with the necessary auxiliary systems to buffer the energy till we need it) could supply ALL energy (not just electrical) needs of the USA.

It should further be noted that only 17% of the USA is "arable". Which means less than 1% of our total land area needs to be covered in solar panels to get the desired result*.

*Assuming that the "desired result" is energy independence and elimination of fossil fuels (which are much more valuable for making plastics than burning).

like perhaps feeding the starving billions

What "starving billions"?

Lack of food hasn't been a major issue anywhere for more than 20 years now (last significant famine was in '92).

And most of the famines of the last century were engineered by local governments or local wars (note that the three largest famines of the 20th century were engineered by the governments in question to remove "politically unreliable" citizens).

Thank 3 mile island, chernoybl, and even the non nuclear deep water horizon.

Thank the Soviet propaganda machine. They spent a lot of time in the 50's and 60's pushing an anti-nuke message that spread from its intended target (bombs) to a completely unintended victim (power).

Didn't we just see the Doomsday Clock adjusted? Tell me, what was the "process" that they used? Or did they just go with "we're Atomic Scientists (tm), we know this shit"?

The hippies worked really hard to bring measles back from the brink of extinction,

**sighs**

Measles has never been on the brink of extinction. It's still endemic in much of the Third World.

Note that the latest US outbreak is about one percent of the normal number of annual cases in the UK alone.

And it's not like CA isn't well above the 90% immunized rate that's considered "fully immunized"....

The "general public" can't possibly be expected to actually understand or evaluate the study's findings or methodology let alone the implications of the findings, which may actually raise more questions than they answer, especially if they contradict or raise questions about previous findings. There's a reason it's called "peer review" -- because it takes people with equivalent knowledge and skills to actually validate the findings, otherwise the guy that writes movie reviews could review them.

While I don't disagree with your points, you're basically asserting that the general public should just accept the wisdom handed down by the Priests of the Great God SCIENCE! and do what they're told.

Alas, when the Priests of the God SCIENCE! spend much of their time telling people they shouldn't have faith in older God(s), it's unlikely that they'll convince people to have faith in the new God....

I'm not surprised at all when that happens.

However, I also don't take what someone says as gospel truth when they're pushing an agenda, even if they're a scientist....

Really?

To all intents and purposes, they required the companies involved to take money out of their left hip pocket, and move it to their right hip pocket in the name of net neutrality.

I mean, "we're required to charge ourselves for data usage by us" is a bit bizarre, when all is said and done....

Sufficiently intelligent beings who have learned to travel faster than the speed of light

FTL isn't necessary for interstellar travel.

Hollow out Ceres, put a few million people on her, send her off toward Alphacent at 0.01c. In 430-odd years, it'll arrive, the descendants of the original inhabitants will colonize that star system.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Fill up a star system, then send off a few colony ships to nearby stars. Even at 0.01c, you fill the galaxy in 10 million years or so. Which is an eyeblink in the lifetime of Earth, much less the Universe.

Not really, because if they were determined enough the majority could push through a constitutional amendment to make it happen.

Supermajority. A simple majority isn't sufficient. 2/3 of the Congress plus 3/4 of the States are required to amend the Constitution.