Category: Current Events

Energy Equates to Wealth

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Something that Environmentalists don’t want to admit is that fossil fuel has produced the modern world.  Without coal, oil and gas as fuels (and much, much else) we would still be living like the peasants in medieval Europe did in the 1300’s.  Coal was the fuel that made steam power possible which produced locomotives and steam ships.  Oil became the default fuel for electrical generation, automobiles, modern trains and also the basis for the myriad petrochemical products that make possible everything from pharmaceuticals and clothing to building materials and every other thing that’s made of what we call polymers.  Natural gas is the fuel for most of the modern electrical generation installations built in the United States over the last forty years or more.  And it heats a large percentage of homes and businesses.   Without these fuels we would literally be poor, cold, hungry and sitting in the dark.

And the Left knows that.  Now Jeff Bezos and the rest of the plutocrats are fine with this.  They know that they would still be able to reap the benefits of energy even if they denied it to the rest of us.  Bezos could have his own private solar collecting system and wind turbines with battery back-ups that could allow him to enjoy all of the modern comforts that would be denied to us.  His jet and helicopter and cars would mysteriously be able to use fuel while we would only be able to purchase a battery car that could only go a short distance and would be hard pressed to recharge by the next morning when we had to commute back to work.  Impoverishing and disenfranchising us is actually the goal of this whole exercise.  A new feudalism would replace a free country and the aristocracy and their minions would lord it over the rest of us deplorables.

Of course, we may not be happy about letting them do this.  Right now, $3.50/gallon gas and the inflation that causes in our economy is making Dementia Joe awfully unpopular.  When it reaches $5.00/gallon he may get tarred and feathered.  And that would be a wonderful thing.  Impoverishing the American people should be considered treason.  So hopefully the environmental insanity being pushed should create a strong reaction to the progressive agenda.  That would be a good outcome.

But there is something that needs to be faced.  There is a finite amount of hydrocarbon fuels in the Earth.  I’m not saying we’re close to the end.  I’m only saying there is an end.  And now is the time to be doing the basic research to find the next energy source for the modern world.  Maybe it’ll be nuclear fission plants, safer versions of the ones currently in place, maybe it’ll be better applications of solar power, perhaps solar collectors outside the atmosphere beaming microwave energy down to collection stations on earth.  Maybe it’ll be geothermal hot spots.

An inexhaustible energy supply solves one of our problems.  With it we can produce electricity to run our factories and if it is truly inexhaustible, we can even heat our homes with it.  But whatever it turns out to be we will still need a fuel for our cars and planes.

Airplanes will never be able to run on batteries.  The power density is too low.  And as we’ve seen battery powered cars are very limited in their range.  Unless there are large gains to be made in battery technology which is unlikely, the best solution is a synthetic fuel.

Maybe it will be hydrogen.  Hydrogen is highly energetic and when it is burned with oxygen its  combustion product is water.  It doesn’t get cleaner than that.  But hydrogen is a small molecule gas and it leaks easily and it blows up mightily.  So extremely fail-safe equipment will be a necessity if it becomes the fuel, we run our automobiles and planes on.  But hydrogen is not the only option.  With unlimited electrical energy engineers could very easily produce synthetic methane (natural gas).  Or with a little more work they could make longer hydrocarbons.  Octane is the optimal component of gasoline.  That could be the main product we produce as our global fuel.  Of course, we would be using water and carbon dioxide as our starting materials so at that point we would have a carbon neutral effect on the environment which unfortunately would make the environmentalists happy.  I wouldn’t feel so good about that but I guess it will have to be.

So, the exhaustion of supplies of natural hydrocarbon fuels is something we should be anticipating.  But instead of giving up the modern lifestyle we’ve gained from these energy treasures we need to use our ingenuity to invent replacements that enhance our ability to control our environment and improve our way of life.  And that’s my version of following the science.

Appeals Court Panel Upholds Hold on Vax Work Mandate

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A three-member panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the halt on Dementia Joe’s OSHA requirement for vax mandate for workers in all American companies with 100 employees or more.

This is pretty good news.  The Fifth Circuit is not filled with liberals so when the full court takes up this case they will most probably make this permanent.  Of course, the slime balls in the administration will probably revise the rule by adding a comma or something to the text file so the same thing will have to be done over again.  But this is a very good sign that we may have already reached the high water mark for COVID madness and are now seeing the flood waters subsiding.

What is BLM’s Mission?

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It’s in the name, right?  Black Lives Matter.  That means that blacks have been illegally targeted by the police for no good reason.  That’s been the narrative used since Obama’s regime was running the FBI.  And yet, every one of the alleged victims was a thug.  Treyvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd and the rest of their less well-known associates.  Each one was killed either committing a violent assault or resisting arrest.

What that tells me is that the goal is to make black criminals immune from arrest.  This requires that the police will be prevented from using force to subdue dangerous criminals.  So, if you commit a robbery or even a murder all you have to do is resist and fight your way out of the arrest.

And how do you make something like this happen?  Easy.  You do it in blue cities and you use the FBI to frighten the cops into laying down.  After what happened to the cops who were involved in the Michael Brown and George Floyd cases it’s obvious that there will be no justice for police involved.  They will be the criminals and the thugs will be the heroes.

And now that the police have been neutered, the looting and burning is a part of daily life taken for granted by the urban dwellers in places like Portland and Seattle.  These activities are studiously ignored by the FBI.  And the FBI is the branch of the federal government that was specifically created to deal with organized crime.  But Antifa and BLM have a free pass.  They’re ignored but a kid like Kyle Rittenhouse has helicopters following him to make sure the prosecution has all the evidence they might need to send him to jail for life for trying to stop the mob from burning down another city.

I read that Ron DeSantis has enacted new legislation to arrest and jail rioters.  But he is one of few.  In all the other areas of the country the cities are devolving into lawless free-fire zones.  The woke black lesbian mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, who let the BLM riots devastate her city, even she has finally balked at the level of lawlessness that the even crazier black woman state’s attorney, Kimberly Foxx has unleashed on the city.  Foxx refused to prosecute gangs involved in a murderous shootout.  Her reason, because it was a mutually engaged in fight.  So, no charges, not even littering for filling the streets with spent bullet cartridges.  Gang war is now just part of daily life in Chicago.  Basically, that is a return to the situation when Al Capone ran whiskey back in the 1920’s.

A friend of mine is convinced that this whole approach is a ploy to allow the police to be federalized.  Maybe he’s right.  But whatever the deeper motives may be there is no doubt that the destruction of law and order will lead to dire consequences.  An obvious one is that the urban areas will become violent hellholes that all normal people will flee.  But these areas will be centers from which the criminal gangs that inhabit them will range out to commit all manner of crime against the surrounding suburban and even rural areas.  And that will be where the conflict will probably be resolved.  Eventually the states will either have to step in and rein in this organized crime or vigilantism will become the policing of last resort.

Maybe the vigilantes will brand their organization White Lives Matter.  It sounds like a concept whose time has come.

BLM Warns NYC “Don’t Try to Stop Crime”

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BLM crime lord Hawk Newsome warned incoming NYC mayor Eric Adams that if he attempts to rein in crime BLM will riot and burn the city to the ground.

“A Black Lives Matter leader vowed there’ll be “riots,” “fire” and “bloodshed” if Mayor-elect Eric Adams follows through with his promise to bring back plainclothes anti-crime cops to battle New York’s surge in violent crimes.”

It’s wonderful to have such clarity.  The vampires announce that if they aren’t allowed to suck the life out of the peasants they’ll burn down the city and massacre the peasants.  Such honesty must be applauded.

Veteran’s Day – 2021

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In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

BY JOHN MCCRAE

Defund the FBI

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In the endless George Floyd rolling riot of 2020 and the subsequent permanent urban crime wave that now occupies all the blue cities, no one has been arrested except for people who tried to defend themselves from the mayhem.  Whether it was police officers trying to stop crime or homeowners brandishing weapons to stop rioters from invading their homes or a kid with a rifle trying to keep a mob from burning down a local business it was those trying to defend themselves from government sanctioned race rioting who were singled out for prosecution.  The local Democrats and the Justice Department conspired to encourage the destruction of these cities as a terror tactic to show white people that they were a hated class that could be attacked with impunity.  And the selective prosecution of anyone trying to stop the rampage was to prove that resistance was futile.

With the trial this week of Kyle Rittenhouse we’ll get to see just how depraved our criminal justice system has become.  All accounts of the trial describe a prosecution in disarray.  The video footage and even the testimony of one of the “victims” corroborates the defense contention that Rittenhouse was defending himself against attacks from the rioters he shot.  This week we were told by BLM activists that the jurors are being videotaped so that they can be targeted if they don’t find Rittenhouse guilty.

So where does this go?  I assume the verdict is a 50/50 proposition.  Even with a terrible case the jurors have enormous pressure on them to find him guilty.  But even if Rittenhouse is absolved on all charges, I assume that the Justice Department will immediately arrest him and charge him on trumped up weapons and civil rights charges.  And that is the point of this article.  Since the days of the Obama Justice Department, the FBI has been weaponized to allow the black underclass to commit crimes against white and even Hispanic citizens with impunity.  Treyvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd and the rest of the litany of black criminals who were shot because they were committing violent crimes are the examples of this policy.  This is a clearly delineated plan to demoralize and essentially terrorize the law-abiding population of the country into submission.  They want us to surrender and surrender up whatever is asked of us in the hope that our lives will be spared.  It is a fiendish plan and it is working.

So, it is apparent what needs to be done.  The FBI has to be defanged.  And the best start to something like that is a two-pronged approach.  First, appoint an Attorney General who is not part of the old boys’ club in Washington.  It will be his job to start demolishing the senior leadership of the FBI.  Fire every single one of the cabal leaders who ran the takedown job against Donald Trump’s administration.  Then fire everyone who reported to those guys.  Then fire everyone who reported to those guys.  You get the picture.  Second, cut the budget of the FBI by about two thirds.  Take away all their toys, the armored assault vehicles and the combat weapons.  They are not the Navy Seals.

As a separate effort I think it’s time to cancel the Patriot Act.  It may have been well intentioned by some of the congressional leaders who originally drafted it but it has proven to be a license to treat American citizens as if they lived in a banana republic without any rights.  We cannot allow the government to spy on Americans as if this were East Germany.

Of course, none of this happens until a real President is in office again.  But even then, there has to be the will to do it.  With the recent string of debacles by Biden and the terrible state of the economy it’s quite possible that the Republicans will have the edge in 2024.  But it is absolutely imperative that ending the FBI’s reign of terror is a first priority in any Republican administration going forward.  If not, we can look forward to burning cities and mob violence from now on.

DeSantis Gives a Speech Outlining His Program to Defend His Citizens

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On October 23, 2021 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave a speech to the Claremont Institute.  He outlines the various programs and actions he has taken to prevent the federal government from overstepping its constitutional powers.  He talks about the COVID excesses, sanctuary cities, transgender bullying, social media discrimination, BLM and Antifa rioting, critical race theory, election fraud and how his government has responded to these issues.  Then he goes through the general conditions in the country and what needs to be done to rectify the problems.

Ron DeSantis is probably the leading figure in the United States fighting back against the leftist agenda that is being fostered by the Biden administration and all the public and private institutions that have allied themselves with it.  It’s a very long article but I thought it gives an idea of how many different factors he has addressed in his governing policy in Florida.  I believe Ron DeSantis will be running for president in three years.  And he is making a very strong case for why he should be elected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letting Go of Comforting Pessimism

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Over the last five years it’s been necessary to recognize just how dysfunctional American politics had become.  Adding together the power and corruption of the Deep State and the cowardly and backstabbing nature of the Republicans with the ubiquitous nature of the Left’s control of almost all of the levers of power in civil society it is almost impossible to overestimate how hopeless the Right’s plight seems to be.  I mean, look at what the FBI did to the duly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump.  And after what the 2020 election tells us about the ability of the Democrats to nullify their opponents’ electoral advantage by simply fabricating votes through fraud, it’s amazing we haven’t all just thrown in the towel and given up on this country.

But unfortunately, there is hope.  And hope is painful and exhausting because it comes with inevitable disappointment.  If you take three steps forward there will be two steps back.  Out of every hundred “leaders” maybe three or four will be for real.  The rest are grifters, nuts and just plain RINO’s.  What passes for pro-Trump Republicans is a motley crew that includes politicians who have put on a disguise of being on our side.  And that becomes clear when they get a chance to vote with Democrats on obvious partisan issues like the infrastructure bill.  Looking at Republicans like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney should be enough to extinguish any last embers of hope that are still remaining on the Right.

But I’ve come to the scary conclusion over the last few months that someone like Ron DeSantis might just be able to rally enough people around him to take some ground back from the Biden Administration and his Deep State stormtroopers.  It’s definitely not certain or even highly likely but it is possible.  And if it is, I’d be a coward if I didn’t at least allow myself to follow the story and even help the effort if it comes to it.  I just read the other day that Republican voter registration in Florida exceeded Democrat registration for the first time in history.  And then we have the elections in Virginia.  And the Federal Courts have put a temporary injunction on the OSHA vaccine mandate for larger companies.  And Biden’s poll numbers have plunged.   And, and, and.  Let’s face it horrible, horrible optimism is creeping into the political scene against my will.

So, I will not pretend that nothing has improved since that horrendous day last November when the fake Biden win was engineered against us.  The blowback from so many bad policies and incompetent leadership is becoming a storm.  Whether it turns into a hurricane that blows away Dementia Joe’s regime remains to be seen.  But just ignoring all this is a mistake I don’t intend to make.

And I won’t suddenly become some kind of Pollyanna pundit.  I’ll call them as I see them.  You won’t hear me seeing allies in every leftist who complains about woke persecution.  That’s just friendly fire on their side.  I won’t start warning against primarying RINO’s.  RINO’s not only deserve to be knocked out of their offices but doing so is therapeutic.  Even if it means we lose a seat to the Dems.  Punishing traitors is good for the movement and good for morale.  I will pay attention to the real results positive and negative.

But doggone it, I’m not going to be allowed to wallow in my delightful misery.  I’ve got to start caring about things again.  Well, here we go.

Mild November Days

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We’ve had about a week of night time temperatures slightly below freezing but I went out this afternoon and found activity.  Tiny midges and Asian ladybugs were flying round.  I found a salamander in a mouse nest under a tin that I put out to find snakes.  The only vegetation (other than the pines and other evergreens) that’s still green is the grass and two metasequoia trees that stand at the edge of the forest.  There’s no ice on the pond yet.  We stand suspended at the edge of the precipice of winter.  And it’s supposed to warm up for at least a week coming up.  With above freezing night time temperatures and daytime temperatures flirting with sixty!  As much as I am a devotee of summer, I have to admit that this year, fall is mellow and very pleasant.  It’s as if New England is trying to make amends for what will follow.

We’ll be celebrating Princess Sack of Potatoes’ third birthday with a party here and it will be a very happy occasion.  And then in two weeks there is Thanksgiving with all the grandkids coming here and that will be Camera Girl’s magnum opus for the year.  Turkey and all the fixings and pies and traditional holiday movie selections.  The March of the Wooden Soldiers, Gulliver’s Travels and I think I’ll start my annual Christmas Carol marathon.  All wonderful things to make this a bright and happy time of the year.

And now I’ll admit my evil nature.  The fact that Dementia Joe’s popularity has tanked and there is a good chance that his America demolishing legislation will stall out long enough to be finished off by the 2022 mid-terms has triggered a wonderful case of schadenfreude in me.  I’m taking enormous joy in the misfortune of these reptiles.  My whole attitude has improved and there’s a spring in my step that’s been missing since last year’s election fraud debacle.

I’ve found myself reading those articles in the Atlantic and Slate and even the New York Times where they try to make the case that Joe Biden is really much more popular than believed and that once they pass the “reconciliation” his poll numbers will skyrocket into the stratosphere.  Of course, they don’t explain how exactly they’ll do that while two of their senators refuse to sign on to the absurd agenda that this bill represents.  And they further state that the runaway inflation and broken supply chain aren’t things that Americans worry about.  Apparently five-dollar gasoline isn’t a problem (when you work for the Atlantic) and anyone who says it is must be a liar and possibly an insurrectionist.  As far as these writers are concerned if the economy isn’t good enough for these deplorables let them eat cake.

So poised for the Holidays the photog clan is looking forward to a jolly Thanksgiving and a merry Christmas.  We will pay the exorbitant prices for food and drink and buy whatever presents are still available on the bare shelves of Walmart and Amazon.  We’ll go into the new year with the hope that the Supreme Court will finally tell Dementia Joe that he can’t force us to take the vaccines or wear masks for the rest of our lives.

So, for this week at least I’m all optimism.  How about you?

Update:  8:31 pm

So, tonight Camera Girl and I watched the season premiere (two hours!) of our favorite night-time soap, “Yellowstone.”  It’s our secret shame.  It’s a ridiculous hot mess almost totally devoid of any acting.  But they do have some good country music on from time to time.  Tonight the first hour ended with Colter Wall’s “Plain to See Plainsman.”  So that did lessen the pain of watching Yellowstone so optimism still intact!