Maybe CO2 isn’t the huge problem we have been told that it is

Two videos have come to light recently addressing Earth’s climate. One is by the World Cycles Institute (WCI), and the other by an Australian geologist and college professor named Ian Rutherford Plimer.

The WCI specializes in analyzing various cycles, such as currency and money, revolutions and wars, governments, markets, and our climate.

Unlike what we see and hear most often these days, presenter Peter Temple began by saying we need “a little dose of reality, because it’s getting colder and dryer, and it’s all because of the sun, and the planets.” He then addressed the cycles of Earth’s temperature over the last 11,000 years.

The video had a chart showing the history of alternating periods of warming and cooling. It showed that we are currently in the “Modern Warm Period,” the most recent of seven throughout the history of the chart.  Two of the longest periods of warming were much warmer than it is today, and occurred long ago. “In fact, the trendline shows that it’s gradually getting cooler,” Temple said, with the chart showing that peak temperatures of the warming periods have been going down. This trend, he said, is because the sun is cooling, adding that no astrophysicist disputes that fact.

Temple then said that we are entering a cooling period. How do we know this? He cited the work of Dr. Raymond Wheeler, whose team of about 200 scientists in the early 1900s researched climate temperatures from 600 BC forward. That research, using tree rings and sun spot records, discovered major cycles of temperatures and rainfall throughout the period of research. Those cycles are roughly 100, 172, 515 and 1,030 years long.

Interestingly, the warm and cold periods matched up precisely with the rise and fall of great empires, which rose in the warming periods, and fell during the cooling periods.

Wheeler’s cycles predicted extreme weather at about the year 2000, followed by a cooling period and long-term drought. Temple then says that is what is now happening. “A recent drop in solar activity is warning of a much colder time coming ahead,” he said.

In fact, Russian astrophysicist, Habibullo Ismailovich Abdussamatov, who is head of the Russian section of the International Space Station, predicted not long ago that a mini ice age is on its way.

Temple then showed a chart from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with data gathered from Greenland ice cores, which he said supports Wheeler’s cycle theory.

Temperatures consistently turned colder every 172 years, and the last of those cycles was in 2007. Temple says that the Earth is going to get a lot colder and dryer, and this period may last several hundred years. This will be accompanied by a major financial collapse, he said, which is a feature of the 172-year cycles.

Ian Plimer appeared in an interview on Sky News a year ago, and responded to a question about the idea that instead of our end being hastened by global warming, we are actually headed toward an ice age by saying that, as Temple noted, our climate is cyclical.

“We are getting towards the end of a warm period … and we are heading for the next inevitable ice age,” Plimer said.

“We have had six major ice ages during which we’ve had glaciations -- that’s when the ice expands -- and warmer periods when the ice retreats. All that happened before humans were on planet Earth, and every single major ice age started when we had more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now,” he said. “And to use the words ‘climate emergency’ indicates that you have absolutely no knowledge about the past.”

Responding to a question about the “link between humans and global warming,” and whether these claims are correct or not, he replied, “No one has ever shown that human emissions of carbon dioxide drive global warming.”

He then asked anyone with such proof to show him the scientific papers that prove it. Citing the fact that so many people live in cities rather than in rural areas, they have not experienced nature in the same way as those who live in the more rural areas.

“So, we have a city-based population that doesn’t read the scientific literature, and has had no life experience [about climate], and they are telling us the ‘chicken little’ story that the sky is falling in. Well I’m sorry folks, there is a very, very large amount of scientific evidence out there that shows that we live in exceptionally boring times. And we’re just having cycles of climate come and go.”

He then cited the major factor in our climate that makes it warmer and cooler without our permission: the sun.

In the email he was quoted as saying that a four-day eruption of a volcano in Iceland negated every single effort we have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet.

And, as with every similar explanation that contradicts the climate doom narrative, many have criticized him.

There are experienced scientists that provide strong arguments, backed by data, that we are not about to destroy the Earth with CO2.

Federal control of elections, and getting the filibuster out of the way

Good Congressional legislation that benefits the country and its citizens will have broad bi-partisan support. If a bill has strong support from one side, but little or no support from the other, it likely is good for the majority and/or bad for the minority.

Many bills, perhaps most, have only one party supporting them, the party in the majority, and are hotly contested.

A bill currently with this partisan split is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named for the late Georgia congressman and civil rights leader. The “voting rights” bill has strong support from Democrat majority, but strong opposition from the Republican minority.

As reported by Politifact, “Supporters say the bill would renew the power of the federal government to oversee state voting laws and protect minority voters at a time when more GOP-led states have passed new restrictions. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., who introduced the bill, said it would ‘ensure that the Voting Rights Act continues to have the effect long intended: to protect the right to vote.’”

The report continues, “But Republicans say the John Lewis bill is federal overreach and would make it too easy for plaintiffs to challenge state election laws that Republicans say are designed to prevent fraud. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has called it ‘unnecessary’ and said that ‘it's against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already.’”

Republicans view their election laws as mechanisms to reduce fraud, and Democrats view them as efforts to restrict voting to certain groups. Democrats see their election laws as making it easy for people to vote, while Republicans view them as mechanisms that make fraud and cheating easier.

The Democrat bill will transfer much of the control over elections that now resides with the states to the federal government. The system of federalism under which the United States was formed left much power to the states, deliberately not giving the federal government total control. The control of election procedures resides with state legislatures.

In addition to trying to federalize control over elections, Democrats also are now talking about eliminating the Senate filibuster, or eliminating certain of its uses. The filibuster, however, is a mechanism that both protects the Senate minority from being run over by the majority, and also helps to encourage the introduction of bills that will have bi-partisan support, which do not encourage a filibuster. 

Some Democrats now favoring the changing or elimination of the filibuster have done an about face from just a few years ago.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, who in 2017 as Minority Leader spoke to the Senate, saying there should be a "firewall" around the legislative filibuster. "Let us go no further down this road," he said. "I hope the Republican Leader and I can, in the coming months, find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster, which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House."

He and other Democrats condemned efforts by Republicans to challenge the filibuster back then. Here are some of their comments:

From Schumer: 

• “They want to make this country into a banana republic where if you don’t get your way you change the rules.”
• “Change the rules in midstream to wash away 200 years of history.
• “Ideologues in the Senate want to turn what the founding fathers called the cooling saucer of democracy into the rubber stamp of dictatorship.”
• “It’ll be a doomsday for democracy.”

President Joe Biden, D-DE, when he was in the Senate: 

• “It raises problems that are more damaging than the problem that exists.”
• “You’re going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done.”
• “Nothing at all will get done.”
• “It is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.”
• “Ending the filibuster is a very dangerous thing to do.”
• “It is a fundamental power grab.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL: 

• “That would be the end of the Senate.”
• “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”
• “Preserve checks and balances so that no one party can do whatever it wants.”

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ: 

• “You cannot change the rules in the middle of the game because you do not like the outcome.”
• “Partisan power grab that will stomp on the rights of the minority and leave fundamentally changed for the worse.”
• “I will not stand by when a party drunk with power tries to overturn 200 years of precedent.”

Sen. Chis Coons, D-DE: 

• “I’m committed to never voting to change the legislative filibuster.” 
• “The one most important rule that requires compromise requires working across the aisle.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ: “The legislative filibuster should stay there and I will personally resist efforts to get rid of it.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA: “I don’t think that we ought to be coming in willy-nilly and changing the rules.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY: “If you don’t have 60 votes yet, it just means you haven’t done enough advocacy and you need to work a lot harder.”

Isn’t it interesting how politicians forego their support of important things when they get in the way?

China presents the most serious threat America faces today

President Joe Biden “dropped an ominous note into his remarks to American service members at a Virginia military base last May, telling them that his Chinese counterpart believes Beijing will ‘own America’ inside the next 15 years,” as reported by the New York Post.

“We’re in a battle between democracies and autocracies,” Biden told troops at Joint Base Langley Eustis in Hampton. “The more complicated the world becomes, the more difficult it is for democracies to come together and reach consensus.”

Biden said that China’s President Xi Jinping “firmly believes that China, before the year [20]30, ’35, is going to own America because autocracies can make quick decisions,” although he did not elaborate on what was meant by “own America.” 

A story reported by Fox News in June a year earlier provided some details of what China has been doing, from the American Security Institute, listing five areas where China has focused its attention.

Medicine: China produces 97 percent of U.S. antibiotics and about 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in American drugs, giving the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) absolute control of potentially life-saving medicine. 

Food: In 2017, the United States imported $4.6 billion in agricultural goods from China. A Chinese firm has also purchased Smithfield, the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. Smithfield provides more than 40,000 American jobs. It partners with thousands of American farmers.

According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, by the start of 2020, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry.

Education: The Chinese government's theft of intellectual property has been known for decades. More recently, U.S. authorities have discovered China is funding American university researchers, who don't always disclose that support.

Technology: The manufacturing of smartphones and other household items is heavily reliant on China, which controls most of the rare earth minerals that make those items work. China is seeking to build 5G networks in the United States, which could potentially feed sensitive data to the CCP.

Media: Chinese firms have bought control of 8,000-plus American theater screens and other media platforms. Thus, China can project a positive image, and block unflattering depictions of its government, in terms of both creative production and mass distribution.

The story continues, telling us that Chinese firms and investors own a controlling majority in nearly 2,400 U.S. companies. These are in the areas of aerospace, automotive, energy, entertainment, food, health care, machinery, mining, and technology.

Among these are: AMC Entertainment (entertainment), Cirrus Wind Energy (energy), Complete Genomics (health care), First International Oil (energy), G.E. Appliances (technology), IBM—P.C. division (technology), Legendary Entertainment Group (entertainment), Motorola Mobility (technology), Nexteer Automotive (automotive), Riot Games (entertainment), Smithfield Foods (food), Teledyne Continental Motors and Mattituck Services (aerospace), Terex Corp. (machinery), Triple H Coal (mining), and Zonare Medical Systems (health care).

"Under China's Communist Party dictatorship, private companies are forced to bend to the government's will," the report states.

This situation has only grown worse since those stories came out. You may remember some more recent stories about Chinese operatives being caught with their fingers in the pie.

"The first priority is to reclaim our critical supply chains so that we can become self-secure instead of reliant on the Chinese government," Will Coggin, managing director of the American Security Institute, told Fox News.

U.S. lawmakers are acting with increased concern on this issue, and both Iowa and Minnesota have passed state laws restricting foreign ownership of farmland in their states. 

While it is good that the Congress and some states have started to address this situation, it requires much more attention and action than what we have seen thus far. What can be more important to the United States than maintaining ownership and control of these vital areas of our economy, and the jobs and products under their control?

In addition to prohibiting or strictly regulating foreign ownership of U.S. companies, we should intensify efforts to bring domestic manufacturing of many products we no longer produce here, or now produce less of, back into the country.

The possibility of China having developed a heat-seeking hypersonic missile adds to the growing threat from the communist nation. The existence of such a weapon, sources say, would be a significant change in how warfare is conducted.

U.S. officials reacted to strong indications of a Chinese test of such a missile last August with surprise and shock, saying they were unaware that hypersonic missile development had reached this level. And, they suggested that our development of hypersonic missiles is far behind.

Hypersonic missiles travel at low trajectories at speeds over 15,000 mph, making them more difficult to track, and are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Chinese officials have denied testing such a missile, and insisted that nuclear weapons would be used only in self-defense, not as an offensive weapon. But the United States, and most other countries, say hypersonic missiles would not be practical, unless nuclear war was on the table.

Even if China does not intend to “own America,” we should not allow any nation to have so much control over our businesses, and especially not to be further advanced militarily than we are.

How is Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan working out for us?

Joe Biden’s been in office almost one year. How is his “Build Back Better” plan working? How long should it take to make a pretty good situation better?

Inflation is skyrocketing. “Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8 percent in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing and other items left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate in 39 years.” So said the Associated Press earlier this month. Prices of some products have doubled, and others have more than doubled. 

Among reasons, the AP said, are that “Employers, struggling with worker shortages, have also been raising pay, and many of them have boosted prices to offset their higher labor costs, thereby adding to inflation.” And, while many workers have gotten raises, inflated prices often negate the higher wages they now have.

A CNN report in December said that “Biden now sports the lowest net economic rating of any president at this point through their first term since at least Jimmy Carter in 1977.”

“In the latest CNN/SSRS poll, Biden comes in with a 44 percent approval rating to 55 percent disapproval rating among registered voters on his economic performance.”

One bright spot, however, is that jobs are being added at a high level, despite all the negatives in the economic data.

Many goods are in short supply, as ships sit off the coast waiting to unload for many days longer than normal. Yes, other ports have expanded or opened up to assist with the problem, but a long and broad list of supplies are still backlogged, including some foods, baby supplies, men’s and women’s products, and other things people need. This is a good reason to start again producing many goods in the U.S.

While lower taxes and government spending support a strong, positive economy, we are seeing both higher taxes and more government spending being enacted and proposed. Biden and Congress had their way on two spending bills, adding more than $3 trillion to the National Debt.

And legislation that Biden supports will move control over elections to the federal government, changing a process that was initially controlled by the states by design of our Founders.  This will eliminate “the most popular and proven safeguards that preserve Americans’ confidence in democracy,” according to Real Clear Politics.    

How are Biden’s plan for ending the pandemic going? "I am not going to shut down the economy, period," Biden said. "I'm going to shut down the virus; that's what I'm going to shut down." Yet, there have been more Covid deaths in 2021 than there were when he criticized how the pandemic was being handled in 2020. And this after he inherited Covid vaccines produced in record time.

Gasoline prices, which were under $2.00 in most places last year, are now near or above $3.00 everywhere, and as high as $5.00 a gallon in some places in California. 

Biden shut down the XL Pipeline here at home that would have moved oil more safely, quickly and less expensively than trucks, but he approved a pipeline that benefits Russia. In addition to negatively affecting US oil production and distribution, shutting down the XL Pipeline also put many Americans out of work.

Crime has gone through the roof in several cities/states. Is that Biden’s fault? No, he didn’t start it, but he hasn’t done much if anything to stop the crime wave. 

His Attorney General, Justice Department and the FBI, instead of focusing on the factors that lead to increased crime, are focused elsewhere: replacing state and local law enforcement in watching parents who are complaining about schools and school systems that indoctrinate their children. And, yes, indoctrination in schools does happen.

The federal governments involvement in keeping an eye on parents, and agents presence outside of school board meetings, serves as intimidation to parents, who are now afraid to speak out on a subject they have every right to speak on.

The debacle in rushing out of Afghanistan left 183 people dead, including 13 American military personnel. In the rush to leave, we abandoned thousands of Afghani allies and Americans trapped there, and a fortune in military equipment, which is now in the hands of the Taliban.

The New York Post reported, “The Taliban has seized US weapons left in Afghanistan worth billions — possibly including 600,000 assault rifles, some 2,000 armored vehicles, and 40 aircraft, including Black Hawks, according to reports.” A more sensible plan for leaving without chaos was ignored.

The southern border is essentially non-existent. The border catastrophe has allowed tens of thousands of illegal aliens to cross the southern border easily, without being controlled by authorities, without anyone knowing whether they are vaccinated, or if they are drug dealers, gang members or child smugglers, etc. 

And while people are allowed to enter the country illegally without being checked for vaccinations, American citizens cannot go do many things, like get on an airliner, without showing evidence of up-to-date vaccinations!!!

All of this bad news in his first year in office calls for Biden’s three-B plan to be renamed: “Biden Blunders Bigly,” or “Building Backward Better” are two possibilities.