Coal is still a valuable asset with many beneficial uses

November 19, 2024

Over recent years the amount of coal used in the US for producing electricity has dropped dramatically. This same decline can be seen across the globe, with 100 countries that have either gone coal-free or have set 2040 as a phase-out date.

The environmental movement is responsible for most of this, prompted by the Paris Agreement in 2015, where 75 nations focused on doing away with coal use by 2050. The environmental faction tells the story that burning coal is a major factor in what they say is the dangerous over-abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere.

To correct this problem, we must stop using fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas to produce electricity, power vehicles or other uses. Even if it is true that we have too much CO2 in the atmosphere — and more than a few scientists argue that position isn’t true — this perspective ignores that fossil fuels contribute to our lives in other ways that are quite useful in addition to producing the power on which we rely so heavily.

And let’s not ignore the idea of many scientists that the level of CO2 in our atmosphere not only should not be reduced, but should be doubled to promote the growth of plant life. Plants and trees consume CO2 and release oxygen, which is critical to human life, into the atmosphere.

On this topic, Mining Digital tells us that “The demise of steam coal — also known as thermal coal — has been well documented, as investors shy away from the fossil fuel that fired the Industrial Revolution and has been an energy mainstay pretty much ever since, save for the past decade or so. Yet one corner of the coal market is thriving: metallurgical coal, otherwise known as coking coal, and vital for making steel.”

Coal is a critical part of steel, and steel is a huge factor in so many things, such as in buildings, as reinforcing rods in concrete, in bridges, tools, ships, trains, cars, bicycles, machines, electrical appliances, furniture, and weapons.

Oil is also used in many things, like plastics, fertilizers, petrochemicals crayons, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eyeglasses, tires, ammonia, lubricants, coolants and paints.

So, you see, these fossil fuels have other uses as well as their contribution to electricity production and propelling vehicles and other devices of various descriptions. But the Biden/Harris administration, with its myopic view of reality and the manic anti-fossil fuel attitude of the left, wants to destroy fossil fuels, and especially coal, which has been, and can still be, so valuable to our region.

While coal use is still declining, and coal-fired power plants are fewer and fewer, the rate of that decline has slowed recently, as power demand is rising for datacenters and manufacturing entities.

And a forecast from S&P Global Commodity Insights points to this as a lifeline for coal power. “But tech companies are building power-hungry datacenters to support new artificial intelligence applications. Additional demand from new datacenters will double in just a year, to 47,448 GWh (Gigawatt hours) between 2024 and 2025, and rise more than eightfold by 2030 to 199,982 GWh.”

President-elect Donald Trump named former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is thought that the EPA will ease regulations affecting fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Trump said of Zeldin, who served in the House from 2015 to 2023, that he will ensure “fair and swift” deregulatory decisions. The result of this will be a boon to American businesses and still maintain the highest environmental standards.

Zeldin said in a recent statement that, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”

E&E News offered this idea of what will happen. “Some of the most stringent rules enacted by the Biden administration will likely end up in the dust bin, such as the agency’s regulations to reduce climate pollution from power plants, according to analysts. Other standards may survive in a weakened form, like the administration’s rules to lower methane emissions.”

“I think the power plant rule is pretty easy for them to revoke,” said Jeff Holmstead, who served as EPA’s air chief under President George W. Bush. “There’s really no one in industry who supports that rule. People just think that EPA was entirely unrealistic.”

Fortunately for those businesses and individuals who support the continued use of coal, not only for power production, but also for the other uses it has, the onset of the Trump/Vance administration is a breath of fresh air. 

Reversing the Biden administration’s mindless restrictions on coal, oil and other fossil fuels will allow the US to regain its position as energy independent, bring back to our country the sale of coal and gas that was sent to other countries by Biden’s orders, and bring down the needlessly high prices for gasoline and diesel fuel.

These changes will not restore the thriving coal industry of a few decades ago, but will allow its use for energy production as well as other positive purposes that have recently come to light.

What is happening in the aftermath of the 2024 election

November 12, 2024

“A relatively trouble-free presidential election was good news for those working to restore faith in the system,” the Associated Press (AP) reported last week. “Less encouraging was a flood of misinformation that sought to undermine trust in voting and sow chaos, something experts say is likely to get worse in the years ahead.”

So far, not many problems have been reported, but the AP did note that “The most significant test for officials on Election Day was a series of bomb threats reported in five battleground states, some of which forced polling places to be evacuated temporarily.”

Early voting saw more than 84 million people who voted either in person or by mail. Together with votes from polling places, former President Donald Trump won the popular vote with 74,783,561 votes and the Electoral College with 312 votes. Vice President Kamala Harris received 71,187,165 votes and 226 Electoral College votes, as the AP reported Sunday. 

Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 704,468 votes, and Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. received 681,096, even though he had withdrawn from the contest, and despite his efforts was left on the ballot in some states.

Now that this much-anticipated election of the next President, members of Congress and various state and local races is over, people might expect things to settle down.

But no, there is still a very lively atmosphere in the country. Of course, Trump followers are pretty happy with the results. They are now concerned with the transfer of power and seeing who Trump will put in the important positions of the new administration.

But those on the other side are having serious problems dealing with what happened. A lot of comments were focused on Donald Trump and all of the reasons why he shouldn’t have won, rather than on why Harris didn’t win.

Some serious and sensible observers, however, have focused on problems with the Harris campaign, generally giving her accolades, but also mentioning things she didn’t do that would have helped her, and things she did that didn’t help.

In a column in The Washington Post contributing columnist Matt Bai said this: “But you must admit that Harris, like Hillary Clinton then, was not a perfect candidate with a clear message. I think the most stunning numbers in some of the state exit polling are those that show Trump winning significant shares of union voters, Black voters and Latino voters. To me, that sort of confirms my instinct that it was risky, if not negligent, for Harris to run a campaign that was almost entirely about how awful her opponent is.”

And comedian Bill Maher, a self-described liberal who often says some very wise things, called the Democratic party “losers” and suggested that they “look in the mirror” following the election. “We had an election,” he said during a “Real Time” monologue on HBO Friday night. “I did not vote for the winner, we’ll see what the winners do now. They won, now they have reality they have to deal with. We’ll see what they do.”

But not everyone is so calm and sensible. We find the common idea of some celebrities threatening to move out of the country, while others refuse to perform in red states. There have also been videos made by disenchanted Harris followers screaming at the top of their lungs about their plight.

They are predicting that there will be no more elections, and that Trump will go after his political enemies, just as the DOJ and the left has done to him. 

“I think that we also have to deal with the issue of race and gender. There was a lot of gender bias in this,” said Al Sharpton. “There was a lot of race bias in this and I think that we thought a lot of voters were more progressive in those areas than they were.”

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin was "profoundly disturbed by the results." She feels for the working class, the elderly and her own daughter, claiming she "now has less rights than I have." She worries that Trump will establish "internment camps." And she also said that "sexism and misogyny" were how Trump won the Latino vote in a Texas county that Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Other Harris supporters made these comments: “I might wake up a slave.” “I’m in Texas and I am so afraid.” “If you’re a black man and you voted for Trump … I hope that cop beats you so good.” “Trying not to worry too much but I’ve been up since 3 crying and panicking.” “I feel like i’ll [sic] be going 6ft under.” “I’m panicking [for real.] We need a proper evacuation plan.”

Fortunately for us all, we did not elect a candidate because of their race or gender, or because they refused press conferences and answering questions in a serious manner. And we did not fail to elect a candidate because of their personality, the baseless and silly references to Hitler and fascism, and because they are a lawfare victim. 

Instead, we elected a candidate based on policies proven far better than what the American people and the nation have suffered under for the last four years.

Is our election system secure enough to produce the true result?

November 5, 2024

Today is election day. Voting is a sacred right and a critical duty of eligible voters. And although this is the day that Americans traditionally have gone to the polls to cast their ballots, tens of millions have already voted, either through early voting, or by mail-in ballots.

This election is a critical one. It will determine who our next president will be, how the two houses of Congress will be controlled, who the governors in many states will be and which party will control state legislatures, and many municipal and county leadership positions will be decided. It is a very important day.

The country is more politically and ideologically divided than it has been in many, many years. That divide will not be significantly changed by the election results.

And while most of us are hoping for a clean, secure election with few problems, the nature of the current election processes virtually guarantees that there will be some potentially serious problems of errors, ballot tampering and fraud.

Mailing ballots to voters, no matter how valid the reasons are for doing it, provides opportunities for problems. Delays in the postal system may cause deadlines to be missed. Ballots can be stolen on their way to and from voters. And drop boxes placed on streets for voters to return ballots after voting are targets for mischief.

Already in Washington state hundreds of ballots were recently destroyed by fire in one drop box. And, a drop box in Oregon was also set afire, although the loss of ballots there was small. Still, hundreds of voters’ choices were lost.

The Associated Press reported that “[s]ix states have banned ballot drop boxes since 2020: Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and South Dakota, according to research by the Voting Rights Lab, which advocates for expanded voting access. Other states have restricted their use, including Ohio and Iowa, which now permits only one drop box per county, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.”

Other election problems have accompanied the introduction of computer voting devices, which can be, and have been, hacked when connected to the Internet. These devices also may have been programmed by the people that produced or installed them to make changes to election numbers as ballots are counted.

In the 2020 election, there were allegations supported by evidence that people who delivered ballots to voters who were in care facilities or who were cognitively impaired coached the voters on how to vote, or actually marked the ballots themselves and managed to get voter signatures on them before submitting them.

And 26 states and Washington, DC allow military personnel to vote by email or an online portal, and seven states allow voting via fax. Some states allow voters with disabilities to use some of those options to vote.

On the latter topic, National Public Radio warned late last year that “advice from cybersecurity experts is clear: Widespread internet voting at this point is a bad idea.”

Clearly, the variety of voting options available presents many opportunities for election tampering and fraud. Our elections are too important to allow the sorts of insecurities present in the current voting methods.

University of Michigan computer science and engineering professor J. Alex Halderman is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on election security. He offers tips that can help us ensure that votes are recorded accurately and securely, among which are these: 
* Avoid voting methods that don’t have a paper trail.
* If you use a ballot-marking device at the polls, review your printout.
* Don’t vote online.
* Encourage your state to do a risk-limiting audit in future elections.

Digicert, a company that refers to itself as “The global leader in digital trust,” recommends three requirements of a trustworthy voting method:
* Fraud prevention: Ensuring every vote is legitimate.
* Privacy: Protecting voters' choices from prying eyes.
* Cost-effectiveness: Making elections affordable for everyone.

And Bloomberg online offered the following advice prior to the 2020 election: “Election voting is the cybersecurity industry’s most difficult challenge, and casting ballots on paper is the safest option against any digital disruptions, says CrowdStrike Holdings co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer Dmitri Alperovitch.”

“Voting is the hardest thing to secure when it comes to cybersecurity,” Alperovitch said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The only way we know how to do it well and safely is by using paper.” He also said that in-person voting and ballots that are either mailed in or dropped off at collection sites are the best ways to ensure that a digital hack won’t happen.

Secure elections are a requirement. However, many of the aspects of our elections today are to make registering to vote easier and voting more convenient. 

But election security must not be weakened just to make it easier for people. Other things can be done to improve the election process without opening it up to tampering and fraud.

Every voter must have proved eligibility and produce a photo ID or other form of proof of identity, and have paper ballots that can be kept on file and referred to when needed. If these security measures cause problems, then we must just buckle up and deal with them.

“Our democracy” works well as it was designed. Leave it alone!

October 29, 2024

The liberal faction in America has an annoying tendency to want to change everything that gets in the way of its drive for total control of the country that will last forever. 

This tendency includes such radical actions as packing the Supreme Court with liberal justices who will essentially ignore the basis for our laws and Constitution and ignore existing laws and the terms of the Constitution and substitute their political preferences, without going through required processes to make such changes.

They also would like to abolish the Senate filibuster that has played such an important part in preventing bad measures from getting easily passed in that body. 

The filibuster promotes compromise and protects the minority party’s voice and function. It also protects purposeful debate, which is the intended purpose of the Senate. And it provides a safeguard against political extremism and corporate influence.

And they want to abolish the Electoral College. Criticism of this element of the government includes that it is not a mechanism of direct democracy, or as a voice of the people, since it replaces the popular vote result with a different process. But the United States of America is not, and has never been a direct democracy. It is also called a weapon of slavery. But that has been effectively proven wrong. 

The Founders deliberately created the Electoral College as a mechanism of federalism. Federalism recognizes the states as important elements of the nation with a degree of control over what does and does not happen.

“Doing away with the Electoral College would breach our fidelity to the spirit of the Constitution, a document expressly written to thwart the excesses of majoritarianism,” in the opinion of John Samples, Vice President of the Cato Institute.

“First, we must keep in mind the likely effects of direct popular election of the president,” Samples wrote. “We would probably see elections dominated by the most populous regions of the country or by several large metropolitan areas.”

“Second, the Electoral College makes sure that the states count in presidential elections. As such, it is an important part of our federalist system — a system worth preserving. Historically, federalism is central to our grand constitutional effort to restrain power,” he wrote, “but even in our own time we have found that devolving power to the states leads to important policy innovations,” such as welfare reform.

Another opinion on the Electoral College’s importance comes from Allen Guelzo and James Hulme in, of all places, The Washington Post. “Abolishing the electoral college now might satisfy an irritated yearning for direct democracy, but it would also mean dismantling federalism. After that, there would be no sense in having a Senate (which, after all, represents the interests of the states), and further along, no sense even in having states, except as administrative departments of the central government. 

“Those who wish to abolish the electoral college ought to go the distance, and do away with the entire federal system and perhaps even retire the Constitution, since the federalism it was designed to embody would have disappeared.”

By the way, replacing the Constitution is a goal of more than a few of the political left in the country.

“Without the electoral college, there would be no effective brake on the number of ‘viable’ presidential candidates,” Guelzo and Hulme add. “Abolish it, and it would not be difficult to imagine a scenario where, in a field of a dozen micro-candidates, the ‘winner’ only needs 10 percent of the vote, and represents less than 5 percent of the electorate. And presidents elected with smaller and smaller pluralities will only aggravate the sense that an elected president is governing without a real electoral mandate.”

The number of people who do not understand the function of the Electoral College and its value to the nation is shockingly enormous. It has provided a high degree of stability in our presidential elections, and therefore must be left alone.

Guelzo and Hulme added that while the Electoral College appears to be an inefficient process to many, “the Founders were not interested in efficiency; they were interested in securing ‘the blessings of liberty.’ The Electoral College is, in the end, not a bad device for securing that.”

Recently, there has been much attention focused on and many references to “our democracy.” And there is so much finger-pointing at former President Donald Trump, and other Republicans and conservatives, accusing them of trying to harm or destroy the democracy. 

What is truly interesting, however, is how determined the liberal Democrats and Marxists are to dismantle our democratic processes piece by piece. A bright future for them is a country which they will control in perpetuity.

The references listed earlier — stacking the Supreme Court, ending the Senate filibuster, and abolishing the Electoral College — as well as making the District of Columbia and some US territories into states, are nothing more than mechanisms to alter our democratic republic, with its guarantees of personal freedom and high degree of state independence, and turn it into a direct democracy.

Converting our current very successful system into one where government has absolute control is not an improvement for the people. Only for some people.

Too much government control negatively affects the people

October 22, 2024

We have all probably noticed that over the last few decades, and likely almost as long as the country has existed, the federal government has been growing and has gotten much bigger, much more powerful, and mind-bogglingly expensive.

While the addition of new government departments, agencies, offices, etc., and their increases in size, may have been intended to improve government functioning, and were done for the best of reasons, that has often not been the result.

While the elements of government are constitutionally under the control of the administration and Congress, that leadership changes fairly often, and with those changes come different ideas about how government should work. But most of the personnel in the various administrative departments and agencies stay in their positions for years or decades, and while they are there they develop their own ideas about how their part of government should work.

These concepts frequently are at odds with what is expected by the people, and what best serves their interests. As a result, terms like “deep state” and “administrative state” have arisen to describe them.

Complaints about this troubling problem are not unusual, and quite often highlight true problems caused by a particular area of government. But the complaints quite often fall on deaf ears, or do not have needed support to change things. A recent correspondence from the CEO of a South Carolina electric cooperative to its customers is a good example.

Palmetto Electric Cooperative President and CEO, A. Berl Davis Jr., identified and explained one such problem brought on by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Davis began by discussing referees in a football game, who he said often operate as if they are more important than the game itself. “I think of the Environmental Protection Agency the same way,” he wrote. “The role they fill is a critical one, but their recent set of regulations on power plants is a bad call. Unfortunately, the consequences will be much worse than merely losing a ballgame. The EPA’s latest interference in the energy industry threatens our access to reliable, affordable electricity. It’s one more reason our cooperative’s energy costs are rising, along with inflation and the increasing price of wholesale power from one of our primary power sources, Santee Cooper.”

EPA’s recent rule aimed at existing coal and new natural gas power plants requires them to either greatly reduce their output or install carbon capture and storage. “In theory, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, might sound like a neat idea. A power plant’s carbon emissions could be injected deep underground rather than released into the atmosphere,” Davis wrote. “But in practice, CCS is unproven and unbelievably expensive. No utility in the country has successfully pulled off CCS at the level the EPA is requiring for America’s fleet of power plants.”

This action’s expense results in higher prices for consumers, and also puts power suppliers in a crisis. As he explains it, “South Carolina urgently needs more power supply, not greater restrictions on our existing power plants or the ones our state needs to build. Our state has already struggled to supply sufficient electricity during the coldest hours of the winter, such as when freezing weather led to rolling blackouts in parts of South Carolina during Christmas 2022. And South Carolina’s power needs are only increasing amid the state’s rapid population and economic growth.”

Some help can come from solar farms, he notes, but also recognizing that solar power is not always there when it is needed, like on cold winter mornings and at night when the sun isn’t shining.

“To keep up, we will need to be able to rely on 24/7 energy sources including natural gas and, at least for now, coal. Yet the EPA seems intent on throwing its yellow flag and ejecting those reliable power plants from the game,” Davis wrote. “The job of keeping the lights on is hard enough during a challenging time for the energy industry. We don’t need the government making it any harder or more expensive for you.” And this problem affects other states, too.

He said further that Palmetto Electric Cooperative is joining other organizations to fight the EPA’s dangerous rules in court and in the Congress.

Decisions like this one are made by bureaucrats in government offices, not by the one law-making body that we have: Congress. Where the environment is concerned, decisions like this one are often the result of political positions and ideals, not on actual problems and needs, and the effects they will have on the people that the bureaucrats exist to properly serve.

The “administrative state” must be brought under control. Our government needs to be reduced in its degree of control, its size and its cost. Its focus must be restored so that it works for the good of all of the people, not just the political faction that most government employees favor, whatever that may be.

In the election next month there is the opportunity to do one of two things: either continue the current trend and increase the size, cost and control of government by electing radical Democrat liberals/socialists, or say a loud “no” to that.

Are they defending democracy? Or, eliminating democratic principles?

October 8, 2024

Many of those on the left have been observed using the term “democracy” when talking about the United States of America. And some activities, and some individuals are often termed “threats to our democracy.”

Of course, our nation does operate on democratic principles. Our Founding Fathers came here from other countries, and were familiar with how things were done in other countries. Some countries may have been democracies while others may not have been. They developed our system to avoid the problems they witnessed in other countries. 

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution — the Bill of Rights — exist for that very purpose. And, notably, the first of those amendments is the one guaranteeing us freedom of speech and other things. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Despite this very clear statement, from day one of our republic there have been efforts to limit free speech, and many of those actions were exercised by those in the federal government.

And that effort continues today, as those who are objective and have been paying attention have witnessed. During COVID, and on controversial subjects, speech is frequently limited by the news media and social media, and yet again, by some of those working in and for our government.

When you are trying to control a nation, people being able to say whatever they are thinking is not a good thing. Some ideas that do not agree with the status quo are out there for the public to consider. And the controllers cannot prosper under those conditions.

To combat these alternative ideas, they are labeled as false, misleading, disinformation, misinformation, etc., and are removed, or requested to be removed, from communication vehicles and thrown into the trashcan.

Last month John Kerry, former Secretary of State and former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in the Biden administration, took part in a World Economic Forum panel discussion on Green Energy. Near the end of the event an audience member asked what could be done about the disinformation being heard surrounding the climate change fracas.

"You know there's a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you're going to have some accountability on facts, etc.,” Kerry said. “But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence,” he continued.  

“So, what we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern, by hopefully winning enough votes that you're free to be able to implement change."

"The dislike of and anguish over social media is just growing and growing. It is part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue. It's really hard to govern today. The referees we used to have to determine what is a fact and what isn't a fact have kind of been eviscerated, to a certain degree. And people go and self-select where they go for their news, for their information. And then you get into a vicious cycle," Kerry said.

In another comment, Kerry remarked, "Democracies around the world now are struggling with the absence of a sort of truth arbiter, and there’s no one who defines what facts really are."

So, our First Amendment gets in the way of people like Kerry being able to easily shove their ideas down our throats with no opposition. It is a major block to combating other ideas, which they label as “misinformation.”

They want the government to be the “truth arbiter” and define what the facts are. And they need the Democrats/socialists to win the presidency and both houses of Congress so that they will have the power to rid the nation of the First Amendment that allows challenges to their chosen course of action.

The reason for this is that Kerry and his comrades believe they know all that is needed, and that climate change is going to end humanity and all plant and animal life on Earth. And they know exactly what is needed to prevent that. 

Other opinions — even those of scientists or science professors — are “disinformation,” and must be prevented from becoming public knowledge.

However, it ought to be obvious to any thinking individual that what Kerry and others are trying to do is precisely why there is a First Amendment, and why that amendment is the very first one in our guaranteed Bill of Rights. 

Without free speech government can do whatever it pleases, and anyone expressing a contrary opinion is subject to criminal charges, even death.

The Bill of Rights and the rest of the Constitution are designed to limit what the government can do, so that the United States of America will not become just one more oppressive totalitarian state.

What exactly is carbon dioxide, and why is it such a problem?

October 1, 2024

First it was “global warming,” and now it is “climate change.” It is caused, we are told, by too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. CO2 is one-part carbon and two-parts oxygen. It is the carbon that is the problem.

“Carbon is a planetary paradox,” according to Arizona State University’s ASU News. “As the foundation for DNA, carbon is essential for all life on Earth. Yet, as part of the compound carbon dioxide, too much of it has built up in our air, threatening life on Earth as well.

“Today, carbon-based fuels power our very way of life. They support the global economy, transport networks and energy infrastructures. Addressing our carbon problem is, in a word, complex.

“Fortunately, it’s also a problem we can solve together.

“At Arizona State University, researchers explore many ways to reduce atmospheric carbon. And by working alongside industry, government, nonprofits and communities, they’re seeking solutions that are good not just for the planet but also human well-being.

“Experts from fields across ASU share how we can start to bring these systems into harmony and build a healthier world for ourselves and our children.

Why is carbon dioxide a problem?

“Our planet has an elegant system to recycle carbon. After making its way through plants, animals, soil, rock and ocean, it goes into the atmosphere — mainly as carbon dioxide — where it begins its journey again. But if Earth is so great at recycling carbon, how did we end up with too much in the atmosphere?

“Around 200 years ago, a key disturbance unbalanced this cycle. People found they could extract oil and coal — two forms of carbon called fossil fuels — and burn them for energy.

“In short time, our way of life came to depend on carbon-based fuel. Many of today’s amenities, like long-distance travel, buying food grown far away and lighting our homes, rely on this fuel.

“But these innovations have a hidden cost. As we burn fossil fuels, we release carbon back into the air, bypassing a natural process that would have taken thousands of years.

“From pre-industrial times to 2021, humans have added an extra 1.69 trillion metric tons to the atmosphere, and scientists estimate we added around 37 billion metric tons in 2022 alone.

“CO2 naturally traps heat, so all that extra CO2 increases Earth’s average temperature. This has noticeably affected our climate and weather patterns. These changes increase flood and fire risk, threaten crops and food security, endanger vulnerable species, expose us to new diseases, and force people to leave their homelands.”

So, that amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is a problem. What besides CO2 is Earth’s atmosphere made of? While the list of components has 16 gases, it primarily consists of four gases: nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide.

The function provided by each of these is described thusly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): “Nitrogen dilutes oxygen and prevents rapid burning at the Earth's surface. Living things need it to make proteins. Oxygen is used by all living things and is essential for respiration. It is also necessary for combustion (burning). 

“Argon is used in light bulbs, in double-pane windows, and to preserve museum objects such as the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Plants use carbon dioxide to make oxygen. Carbon dioxide also acts as a blanket that prevents the escape of heat into outer space.”

Because CO2 absorbs heat, it is blamed for contributing to the “greenhouse effect,” “global warming,” or “climate change.”

However, the NOAA website from July 2024 tells us that the proportion of these four gases is approximately as follows: nitrogen = 78 percent; oxygen = 20.9 percent; argon = 0.9 percent; carbon dioxide = 0.04 percent.

So, with all that extra CO2 from fossil fuel use, only 4 in 10,000 atmospheric particles are CO2.

As the NOAA said, “Plants use carbon dioxide to make oxygen.” So, plants “eat” CO2 and emit oxygen. That’s a good thing, right?

In Australia, China and nations in Africa, drylands are turning greener. Why? Because of the increased amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

“The primary reason, most recent studies conclude, is the 50-percent rise in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere since preindustrial times,” according to Yale Environment 360, published by the Yale University School of the Environment.

David McGee, an associate professor in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, is quoted on MIT’s Climate Portal saying that today’s CO2 levels are actually “nothing special.” “In the past, carbon dioxide levels have been much higher than they are today and much lower than they are today.”

And Earth’s temperatures have been both much higher and much lower than they are today.

Conceivably, the comparatively minor temperature and CO2 increases that have been witnessed recently are not so important in the context of those changes over many decades and centuries.

Perhaps these increases are not really the serious problem the climate crisis faction wants us to believe they are. And maybe if we make changes to how we do things, those changes should be less radical than those proposed.

Harris is the absolute worst choice to lead this country

September 24, 2024

As the 2024 presidential election draws nearer, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat nominee, continues to avoid nearly every opportunity to tell voters about the specifics of her plan for what she will do, and how.

She has gained a reputation for some rather radical positions, including: wanting to abolish ICE, open the southern border, defund the police, release violent offenders, eliminate middle-class tax cuts, ban fracking and end fossil fuel use, confiscate guns from lawful owners, take away private health care plans, and provide taxpayer funded transgender surgeries for illegal aliens.

During a recent campaign stop in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, a reporter asked her: “And can you give us a sense of what other policies you want to unveil moving forward?"

In answering that question, she said, "Sure, well, I mean, you just look at it in terms of what we are talking about, for example, around children and the child tax credit and extending the EITC [Earned Income Tax Credit]." She did not answer the question. She then babbled on about the EITC, and in the process made false statements about it.

Late last month Harris told CNN's Dana Bash in her first sit-down interview since becoming the Democrat’s candidate through a non-democratic process that the Biden-Harris administration has done "good work" on the economy, but "there's more to do." She completely ignored the high level of inflation that developed during her tenure as VP.

Asked about her changing position on important issues, she said, "I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed." Again, she avoided answering the question and failed to explain why she changed positions after becoming a candidate.

On immigration, Harris noted her prosecutorial record as attorney general of California saying she has long cared about border security, even though under her watch as “border czar,” the border has effectively become wide open, allowing in roughly 10 million illegal aliens.

Her priority on day one if elected will be to "strengthen and support the middle class," she said. Again, she did not take the opportunity to explain exactly how she plans to do that.

Harris seems to be following the lead of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, who famously said about a piece of legislation, “We have to pass it to find out what is in it.” Harris’ message: “Elect me to find out what I plan to do.”

Harris claims to be a Second Amendment advocate. She says she wants some “common sense” measures to keep everyone safe.

“I’m a gun owner,” she said in a friendly interview with Oprah Winfrey. “If someone breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.” Ooops! “Sorry. I probably should not have said that. [Cackling] My staff will deal with that later. [Cackling]” 

However, as a prosecutor in California in 2007, Harris outlined her view of why she could violate the Fourth Amendment. She said she would search the homes of gun owners. “Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn’t mean that we’re not going to walk into that home to check and see if you are being responsible and safe,” she said. 

And Harris said back in 2020: “These stand-your-ground laws … have often, often and frequently, been used as an excuse, if not a cover, for people motivated by race and racial profiling.” Seriously?

And even this year, while she claims she’s “not taking anybody’s guns away,” Harris still supports a mandatory buyback plan for so-called “assault rifles.” That is a disguise for what it really is: gun confiscation. “We need an assault weapons ban,” she said. 

While claiming that Bidenomics and other policies have been wonderfully successful these nearly four years, she says she will fix everything on day one. What needs to be fixed in this wonderfully successful administration? How will she fix it?

She cites words Trump used that are the same words Hitler used. So, Trump is like Hitler because they have sometimes used some of the same terms. But Harris isn’t like Hitler because some of her preferences are similar to Hitler’s?

So many of her supporters say they will vote for her because they “like her.” She refuses to give details on her plans if elected, but they will vote for her, anyway.

And let’s look at a broader picture: which side is more radical, the left or the right? Well, how many attempts to assassinate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have we seen?

If you like the high prices on most everything; the millions of illegal aliens, gotaways and terror watch-list persons running free and committing crimes; our once-great energy status that existed before Biden-Harris; the coming higher taxes and increased regulations; our constitutional republic being torn apart, then vote on November 5 for the woman who spurns interviews and tough questions, refuses to publish her positions and policies, and promises to fix all the things her present administration brought on the American people over the last four years.

She does not understand or care about America, and will take us down the road to socialism. 

The United States of America: Is it a democracy, or not?

September 17, 2024

An article on the Analyzing America website goes into a good bit of detail about America’s status as a democracy. Much of that article follows.

“A CNN reporter addressed Trump supporters calling the U.S. a republic as an ‘attack on democracy,’ sparking a debate on the country’s governance. 

Historian Anne Applebaum emphasized America as a democratic nation, attributing doubts to Trump’s influence and narrative. 

“The discussion delved into the constitutional definition of a republic, historical views on democracy, and the distinction between forms of governance. 

“‘America is a democracy. It was founded as a democracy,’ Applebaum said.

‘I’ve heard a lot of conspiracy theories. I hear a lot of things out on the road, but to hear Americans, people who would describe themselves as patriots, say that America is not a democracy, that stopped me in my tracks,’ CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan said.

“‘You are hearing people say America is not a democracy because there are people around Trump who want them to be saying that, who’ve been planting that narrative,’ Applebaum said.

“‘Honestly, the word ‘democracy’ and the word ‘republic’ have often been used interchangeably,’ Applebaum said. ‘There isn’t a meaningful difference between them.’

“‘If they can convince people that we don’t have a democracy, then it’s okay that Trump is attacking democracy, because it doesn’t really matter,’ Applebaum added. 

“‘There is, of course, a legitimate debate discussion to be had on what form of democracy we have here in the United States, direct democracy, representative democracy, in fact, constitutional republic, which you heard people mentioned in that piece, that is a form of democracy. But look, this is not actually a debate about government, about democracy, it’s an attack on democracy,’ O’Sullivan said. ‘People have heard the warnings that Trump is a danger to democracy, and therefore you have people trying to convince others that, well, the United States isn’t a democracy in the first place, and therefore Trump can’t be a threat.’”

The reality is that the U.S. is not now, and has never been, a pure democracy.

A democracy is a political system that focuses on universal equality, where the people select their rulers by a majority vote at the polls. Essentially, a 50.1 percent majority can decide what goes and what does not, and the 49.9 percent minority is at the mercy of the majority. These rulers have absolute power, and they may make whatever laws they want by a majority vote among themselves.

Similarly, a republic is a form of government more focused on individual liberty, and is ruled by representatives of the citizenry on the principle that sovereignty is with the people, not just the government. However, exactly who is considered in the category of “the people” is not a hard and fast thing that may be misused.

Our Founders saw potential problems with both of those systems in their pure form. According to Colonial Williamsburg online, a “democratic government, they feared, might dissolve into anarchy. A republican system, conversely, invited an aristocracy to rise.”

So, they decided to go with neither in its pure form, and instead designed a system which combined features of each of them, and which is superior to both: a constitutional republic.

In a constitutional republic the people also select their rulers by a majority vote at the polls. But these rulers are restricted in what they can do and how they must do it by the U.S. Constitution.

So, while the nation observes democratic principles, referring to it as a democracy is inaccurate. And criticizing those who refer to it as a republic is out of bounds, because it actually is a republic, the government of which is controlled by a constitution.

However, by criticizing those identifying the country as a republic, their effort to sell the democracy angle is somewhat advanced.

Many of those who call the country a democracy know that the term is not accurate, but wish it was. They prefer a democracy to the constitutional republic we now have.

Efforts have been underway for many years to subvert our constitutional republic and turn it into a democracy. This would provide the left the control over the rest of us that they have been so desperately seeking.

By continuing to do this, these people obscure the true system of our government. It is their hope that most Americans will go along with this mis-identification and come to regard America as a democracy. 

In doing this, the door for America to become a totalitarian state is opened, and the effort to put into the dustbin of history a government system superior to any yet devised is well underway.

All great nations eventually fall, sometimes because of actions of other nations, but also sometimes from factions within it. If that is allowed to happen to the United States of America, the likelihood of there ever being another like it is virtually nil.

Should this effort succeed, it will be due in large part to the failure of our culture, particularly the family, the education system, and the no-longer-neutral or honorable news media.

We must strongly oppose this subversive effort.

Harris changes positions to attract votes and avoids interviews

September 10, 2024

It has frequently been pointed out how the Biden-Harris administration has messed up so much during its tenure, and that Vice President Kamala Harris, as a candidate for president, has said so often that if elected she will fix things. A comment often follows, asking why she doesn’t fix things now, since she is in power.

Some of the problems she wants to fix to encourage votes in November are items that she previously supported. Among those areas, we find these flip-flops:

**On illegal Immigration, Harris wrote in 2020 that “Trump’s border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer money and won’t make us any safer.” She further called it “un-American.” As “border czar” she did nothing to control the influx of illegal aliens. However, she now has endorsed spending hundreds of millions of dollars on construction of a wall, according to The Daily Signal.

**She also campaigned against oil and natural gas fracking, saying in 2020, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” Very recently, however, she said, “What I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking,”

**And while during the Biden-Harris administration a regulation came from the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation that mandates electric vehicle sales in the United States, her view on that, too, has changed. Her campaign recently announced that she “does not support an electric vehicle mandate.”

**As a U.S. senator from California, Harris favored government-run healthcare by co-sponsoring the Medicare for All legislation. But, once again, that is not her current position.

But while back-tracking on previous positions to seem less radical, Harris supports other policies that are radical and harmful.

During the anti-police riots following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Harris supported defunding the police. “This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” she said, praising Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for cutting $150 million from the LAPD budget.

Harris favors assisting more than 4 million people over four years to combat the country’s unaffordable housing crisis by providing an average of $25,000 to all first-time homebuyers. Quite a price tag: $100 billion.

“Shark Tank” star and O’Leary Ventures chairman Kevin O’Leary has criticized this "crazy notion," on the Fox Business program, “Kudlow.” 

He argued that "$25,000 free helicopter money is insane" and will "never happen." "Think about it. You have a shortage. You then flush more helicopter money from the sky. You cause inflation because if you're the seller of a house and you've got 15 bids and you know that person has just received $25,000, you up your price 25,000, the price just went up," he stressed.

He added that the country has "massive supply" problems and "punitive" regulatory policies must be addressed to "get more supply on the market."

O’Leary also criticized Harris’ proposed solution to rising rental costs, which is to impose price controls. Calling it a “Soviet-style pricing" fix, he said, "There’s a huge problem with that."

"Here's what happens to the price control building,” he continued. “No CapEx [Capital Expenditures], no maintenance. It starts to fall apart. There's no incentive for the landowner or the person who built the building to ever spend another dime on it. They just slowly crumble." Price controls distort markets, cause inflation, and reduce supply, he said.

In what may well be the craziest of these ideas, Harris proposes to raise taxes. In her campaign for president, she supports all the tax increases President Biden proposed in the White House fiscal year 2025 budget. First, she wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, increasing costs on businesses, which leads to higher prices.

But the wildest idea to impose a 25 percent tax on unrealized capital gains for people with over $100 million in wealth. Currently, taxpayers pay taxes on the growth in the value of their assets when they are sold, and money is in hand. "Of all the suggestions I’ve heard on taxation, I find that the most offensive," O’Leary said, calling it “un-American.”

"Let's say our business went from being worth 10 million to 20 million over five years. Where am I going to come up with $3 or $4 million cash that I don't even have, that I never had? I mean when you really start thinking pragmatically about these ideas, you understand how bad they are," he said, adding that it "makes no sense whatsoever."

Like many Democrats, Harris does not like the Second Amendment. As the district attorney for San Francisco she supported restrictions on individual gun rights, and in the 2019 campaign supported a “mandatory buyback program” for the government to confiscate firearms.

As Harris still has not done interviews or released a list of her policies, some of these may be dropped and others added. 

We may not know what policies will become part of the campaign, but we can feel confident that there will be more restrictions and pain on the American people, and they will strengthen the radical left’s control over us. 

Watching Kamala Harris today, Karl Marx would be proud.

Zuckerberg shines the light on the control of information

September 3, 2024

Last week, confirmation of a long-held notion of an organized effort to control the information available to the public — which opponents and “fact-checkers” labeled as “false” and “conspiracy theories” — came to light.

A story, attributed to Thomson/Reuters, appeared on Newsmax.com, saying that “Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior officials in the [Biden-Harris] administration had pressured his social media company to censor COVID-19 content during the pandemic, adding that he would push back if this were to happen again.”

This revelation came to light in a letter from Zuckerberg to the House Judiciary Committee. He expressed regret for not speaking up about this earlier, and he also expressed regret about some decisions made by Meta Platforms’ applications Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp about removing certain content that had been identified.

In addition to COVID-19 content, information relating to the Hunter Biden laptop that was available ahead of the 2020 election was labeled “Russian disinformation,” and as a result was widely unavailable to the public. Undoubtedly, this same thing happened to other pieces of information.

Zuckerberg deserves some credit for admitting what was suspected for so long. Too bad it took him years to get to this point. 

In the letter, he also said he would “not make any contributions to support electoral infrastructure in this year's presidential election so as to ‘not play a role one way or another’ in the November vote.”

The White House has responded to this revelation with a statement to Fox News in which it did not admit to or deny Zuckerberg’s charge of the administration applying pressure on Meta.

Zuckerberg wrote, "I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret we were not more outspoken about it.” “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."

The House Judiciary Committee called Zuckerberg’s admission of Facebook’s censoring of Americans a “big win for free speech.”

This revelation increases the likelihood that some, or perhaps a lot, of the other suspected instances of censoring were also not “conspiracy theories” or “false” information.

It supports the allegations of wide-spread dishonesty in the handling of important information, and that some in our country are willing to play dirty.

The concept of free speech as guaranteed to Americans by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects unpopular speech, and even offensive speech. What is unpopular and/or offensive to one group may well be quite important to another group. 

Without a variety of ideas being freely circulated, how can Americans possibly work their way to a valid understanding of things, so that they can make informed decisions about issues, particularly things as critical as election choices?

And while what Meta and other information sources did may not be against the law, the case that was cited and other similar instances of blocking information certainly is against the spirit of the First Amendment.

What these platforms did certainly interferes with the very reason that our Founders made the amendment protecting free speech the first of the ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. They understood that the people must have all the available information they need and are entitled to, good or bad, popular or unpopular, offensive or not. 

However, such action by elements of our federal, state and local governments definitely is illegal. And Zuckerberg’s message about the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to censor speech ought to anger all of us.

The country is now experiencing a dangerous attack on integrity, honor and honesty. Dishonesty in politics is not new. But it has grown greatly over recent years, and is even more of a problem than ever.

How many newspapers and magazines, TV and radio networks and stations, and internet sites have dishonestly censored ideas that do not match their preferred political ideas? How many in our public education systems are there not to teach the young the things they need to become productive adults, but to indoctrinate them with anti-American ideas?

This lack of honor and integrity is a characteristic of many in the faction that is desperately working to defeat Donald Trump in his effort to be re-elected as President. He is a great threat to their goal of achieving eternal control of the country. This is a goal they cannot achieve through honest means, because this radical socialist/communist goal does not have the necessary support of the electorate. Therefore, their working motto is, “we will win, and we will use any method available to achieve that goal.” 

People with integrity know that they must win honorably and honestly, and if they lose, it must be the result of an honorable and honest effort. That is the American way.

This revelation illustrates what happens when the Constitution and our laws are not followed. Imagine the chaos if the Democrats’ desires to pack the Supreme Court, do away with the Senate filibuster, continue the open-border policy, move control of elections from the states to the federal government, and other radical changes to the country’s operating procedure are put into effect.

Democrats struggle to establish an effective campaign theme

August 27, 2024

After replacing President Joe Biden as the front-runner for the Democrat nomination for president in a curiously undemocratic way, Vice President Kamala Harris has spent the last month avoiding the press, giving no interviews, holding no press conferences, and did not even post her agenda on the campaign website.

A little over a week ago, however, her campaign did publish several proposals to “lower costs for American families.” Prior to that, she had also not introduced any initiatives, or defended current Biden administration initiatives.

These proposals include: a call for a federal law against price-gouging; more government control over prescription drug prices; extending financial assistance to people shopping for health insurance; subsidizing the construction and purchase of housing; reinstating a COVID-era cash stipend for families with children.

These will increase federal spending over the next 10 years by an estimated $2 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Also, Harris plans to pay for this government over-reach with a hike in corporate taxes to 28 percent, which would cover only about half the spending. It will also have a negative effect on businesses, increasing their costs, leading to higher prices to make up for the additional taxes paid.

Taking another shot at business, Harris has accused food companies of “price gouging,” saying that price controls are needed to bring down prices and check corporate greed. She, of course, knows full well that the wonderful creation of her and Joe’s administration — Bidenomics — is responsible for the higher prices on food and virtually everything else people need and want.

Bidenomics-caused inflation has kicked up costs generally by around 19 percent, and food prices are up even more, about 21 percent.

For their part, those in the food industry use logic to explain the high prices. With higher prices for labor and raw materials, higher prices on their products are the result, and significant profit margins are needed to finance new product development. Only common sense here.

Even The Washington Post editorial board criticized Harris' proposed method in an opinion piece before the convention. The board called it a "populist gimmick," saying that the nation is in need of "serious economic ideas." 

Other elements of misplaced blame were present in last week’s Democratic National Convention. Speakers at the event repeatedly falsely blamed former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump for several things. One of those is the previously mentioned cause of rising prices.

Both President Joe Biden and VP candidate Tim Walz accused Trump of planning a nationwide ban on abortion. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, warned that Trump would ban in vitro fertilization. “Trump’s anti-woman crusade has put other Americans’ right to have their own families at risk, because if they win, Republicans will not stop at banning abortion. They will come for IVF next.”

An informed person would know that Trump has suggested he might support a ban after 15 or 16 weeks, and more recently that abortion should be left up to the states. And in February expressed his support for IVF.

As reported by The Daily Caller, “Many speakers condemned Project 2025, an initiative led by The Heritage Foundation in partnership with over 100 other conservative organizations. The project, a policy blueprint for a future conservative presidential administration, offered to work with any political campaign open to supporting those policies. Heritage and its allies launched the project in April 2023, before Trump had won the Republican nomination. And while many Project 2025 staff had worked in Trump’s administration, the project did not consult with Trump or any other Republican candidate in drafting the document.

“Even so, Democrats repeatedly introduced Project 2025 at the convention as ‘Trump’s plan.’

“Michigan state Democrat Sen. Mallory McMorrow presented Project 2025 as ‘the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.’ She went on to claim that Project 2025 aims ‘to turn Donald Trump into a dictator.’”

However, Project 2025 has not been adopted either by Trump or the Republican Party.

They also continued spouting the fairy tale that Trump and Republicans ban books. “Shutting down the Department of Education, banning our books — none of that will prepare our kids for the future,” former first lady Michelle Obama screamed on Tuesday.

However, removing books that are inappropriate for young children from their school libraries is not banning books. Even Obama and other Democrats should be capable of understanding that very significant difference. 

With two weak candidates, Harris and Walz, on the ticket, the Democrats have a steep mountain to climb. Both through the years have demonstrated an affection for criminals, illegal aliens, rioters, government control, gun control, and other things more associated with socialism and Marxism.

Perhaps they understand that enormous challenge, and are neck deep in desperation. Thus, exaggeration, lying and creating falsities has taken control of the Democrat campaign.

The Democrats accuse Trump of “going backwards.” However, by moving back to what Trump did, we actually are moving the country forward, away from the catastrophe this Democrat administration created that actually did move us backward.

America would be so much better off if a few thousand DC Democrats loved their country like Harry Truman did, instead of trying to change it.

The idea, “go woke, go broke” is one we are seeing more frequently

August 20, 2024

The current mentality that is gaining acceptance considers so much of our culture and history as false or troublesome and in need of replacement, and is succeeding to a dangerous degree. 

Commonly known as being “woke,” the beliefs it supports are things like white people are automatically and always oppressors and non-white people are always oppressed, that historical things and people that are viewed as bad by the “woke” should be removed or destroyed, that what has been traditionally taught as American History is false, and so on.

In trying to calm things down, people frequently join the parade in removing and changing things so that they are less upsetting to those who find them offensive. In some cases, this might be acceptable.

This movement has caused a lot of confusion and emotional distress. And there is at least one area where this is very dangerous and must be stopped. That is in the military forces of the United States of America.

Those who are or have been in our military, or are otherwise familiar with it and its nature, understand how dangerous this is. Even so, some in higher positions have been infected with this idea to the degree that they are imposing changes to how our military operates in order to smooth things out.

However, in smoothing things out, they are making the military less well equipped and weaker to the point that it is less able to do the only thing it exists to do: Defend the country and its interests, protect us from threats and invaders, and eliminate anyone who seeks to harm the USA.

In 2015 a Marine Corps study showed that gender-integrated combat formations — those with both men and women in combat — did not move as quickly or shoot as accurately as men-only units, and that women were twice as likely to suffer combat injuries. The Secretary of the Navy at the time, Ray Maybus, rejected the study because it did not meet the Obama/Biden administration’s political agenda.

However, that same year Defense Secretary Ashton Carter imposed “gender-neutral” operational standards so that female service members could meet the qualifications for combat positions. When it turned out that women were scoring lower than men, the standards were abandoned, and despite their lower performance on qualifying tests, women were, and presumably still are, allowed to be in combat units.

In 2016 Maybus ordered a change in Navy job titles, doing away with titles like “corpsman” and replacing them with gender-neutral titles. However, the enlisted sailors strongly objected, preferring the historic titles from previous decades, and the Navy reversed that change. As “wokeness” continues to infect the military, this change may be, and perhaps has been, reinstituted.

In 2021, the Navy began using a training video explaining the importance of using the correct pronouns. In order to not upset some sailors, inclusive language is now required, such as saying “hey everybody” rather than “hey guys.”

Outside of the military and in the country generally has been promotion of the idea that America is actually a country where racism and white privilege abound. This flawed concept has crept into the military, where men and women service personnel are required to sit through indoctrination programs. These sessions push the Marxist-based idea of critical race theory, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), and other similar ideas.

However, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the House Armed Services Committee: “We do not teach critical race theory, we don’t embrace critical theory, and I think that’s a spurious conversation.”

Others in the Pentagon argue that critical race theory actually is being taught, and that charge is supported by abundant evidence.

Even if CRT was a valid aspect of America, taking up the time of military members with these indoctrination sessions is at odds with the duties and responsibilities of our military services. And the reported billions of dollars of costs associated with these new ideas is a dangerous use of military funds, which should be used for national security and military readiness purposes only.

As the late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh frequently said, the role of the military is to “kill people and break things” in defense of our country. It is precisely the most improper place to indulge in promoting social issues.

Whether our military forces are all white, black, Asian, or Hispanic, or all male or female or some mixture of all of those, it must be the absolute best equipped, most highly trained, and most efficient military possible.

You might expect that, of all people, those in leadership of the Defense Department would understand that. However, many of those in top positions have apparently abandoned their sworn duty and common sense. Fortunately, the rank and file personnel under their leadership — the ones that put their lives on the line and live or die from their policies — do understand the true purpose they must fulfill.

We must quit playing games and focus only on the mission of the nation’s military forces. With the existing threats to our national security, we cannot allow our service personnel to be required to worry about using the proper pronouns, and other idiotic ideas that weaken our security.

A Harris administration will move the country down the wrong road

August 13, 2024

The following is said to have been written in 1954 and attributed to a former judge from California named Keith M. Alber, who at the time was 85 years-old. In the piece, Alber wrote that he was a law student, and in a political science class there was a half-page outline in a textbook on “a few steps to overturn a democracy.”

The steps he mentioned are: Divide the nation philosophically; Foment racial strife; Cause distrust of police authority; Swarm the nation’s borders indiscriminately and unconstitutionally; Engender the military strength to weaken it; Overburden citizens with more unfair taxation; Encourage civil rioting and discourage accountability for all crime; Control all balloting; Control all media.

“What was printed in 1954 as a possible diabolic nightmare has become an emerging reality,” he wrote. “I hope that Americans will unite enough to pen a good finish.”

This article was found on Facebook, posted by several people. And that is all that is needed for the Democrats, socialists and Marxists to automatically write off the ideas expressed in the article, saying that because of its origin, it’s useless.

But the ideas expressed are worth considering, because even Vice President Kamala Harris and New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sometimes make sense.

Is our nation philosophically, politically divided? Absolutely. Are we witnessing racial strife where all white people are considered oppressors? No question. Do some people distrust police authority so much that they want to defund them? Yep. Are our borders indiscriminately and unconstitutionally being opened up to whoever wants to cross them, including criminals, drug traffickers and child traffickers? Unquestionably.

Has our military been weakened by considerations of gender, equity and inclusion instead of merit? Yes! Are taxes an unfair burden on many/most Americans? Yes. Have we seen a frightening increase of civil rioting with those involved in the riots not being held to account? No question! Are important ballots much less secure than in the past because of mailed ballots, unguarded submission bins and other factors? Yes. Is the news media primarily the spokesperson for one political side? Yes.

So, is it a matter of an actual effort to transform America that we are seeing? Or is it merely a matter of people holding ideas that are at odds with our founding principles? Actually, it is both.

Harris criticizes Donald Trump’s campaign to “make America great again” as going backward, and wants to move “forward.” But Trump wants to restore the much better country we had before the Biden/Harris administration came along. We had energy independence, hardly any inflation and prices were much lower, a much more secure border, a world with fewer international conflicts, a lower tax burden, etc.

But despite her recent politically motivated flip-flops, Harris is trying to move even further toward a socialist/Marxist nation that features the things she has embraced for decades.

Her past and present positions include these: As San Francisco district attorney in 2004 she declined to seek the death penalty for a gang member who had killed a police officer. In 2014, as state attorney general she supported the idea that the death penalty was unconstitutional.

Harris was one of the first Democrats to support Senator Bernie Sanders' 2017 Medicare for All bill to provide government-run medical insurance for every American, doing away with private health insurance.

She supports the radical Green New Deal and introduced a climate equity bill. She opposed fracking and has called for federal legal action against the fossil fuel industry. And, she has outlined a climate plan for net-zero CO2 emissions by 2045.

As a presidential candidate she promised to use executive action to enact stricter gun control. She has supported more regulation of gun manufacturers, mandatory background checks, tightening loopholes and a ban on “assault weapons.” She said she was open to the idea of a mandatory buyback, compelling owners of “assault weapons” to forfeit them.

Harris has pledged to offer a path to citizenship to the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the US, supported decriminalizing border crossings by illegal aliens, and wants to provide taxpayer-funded healthcare for those crossing the US border illegally.

Further, she has drawn parallels between the Ku Klux Klan and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is responsible for securing the borders.

Her pick for running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in championing gun control, compared available weapons to those he carried in combat. He didn’t do combat. He signed into law a bill that allows abortion up to the moment of birth. In 2023, Walz signed into law the Trans Refuge Act, making Minnesota a refuge for children to flee to so they can be chemically or physically mutilated. 

More and more, the dystopian world of George Orwell’s classic novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is developing in the United States of America. And the brilliant work of our Founders to look at the world’s nations under government control and create a system that puts the people in charge is being abandoned. Why? Because some do not understand their country, and are falling victim to others who do understand it, but think they can do better with one of the other systems.