The left’s anger, fear and desperation cause misplaced actions

March 25, 2025

The situation of the resistance to everything President Donald Trump says and does has always been a bit crazy, but since he took office in January, this reaction has become even crazier.

Perhaps the best example of that is the reaction to the efforts to restore order and propriety to the use of taxpayer money that the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is doing. Specifically, the involvement in DOGE of Elon Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter) and Space X, and is CEO of Tesla is problematic.

Musk has had criticism from all sorts of people, and even threats on his life, for his efforts to find and eliminate wasteful and improper spending of our money, something every American should support.

This criticism comes primarily from those on the political left. The left is concerned about the climate and the problems they ascribe to too much CO2 in the atmosphere. They heavily oppose the burning of fossil fuels, and heavily favor wind and solar power to replace them.

Musk has helped with that by owning the company producing the very popular Tesla electric vehicle (EV).

Some on the left who disapprove of DOGE’s activities have gone after Musk. And their idea of how to get even with him, in addition to direct actions and threats against him, is through violence, which includes destroying Tesla vehicles and charging stations, and even dealerships. 

Note to those leftists: Musk does not own the vehicles, charging stations and dealerships that you are bombing with Molotov cocktails and damaging through other means. Those vehicles are owned largely by people who agree with your position on the environment, believing EVs are beneficial to the environment. And the charging station and dealership properties are owned mostly by local businesses who provide jobs for local people and generally support their communities.

These violent attacks are suspected to not be spur-of-the-moment reactions, for the most part. Vice President J.D. Vance suggests that they are coordinated and paid for by someone.

"My guess is that if we do get to the bottom of this, we're going to find out that there are some very crazy, very deranged, but very wealthy left-wing people who are funding this stuff," Vance said.

Along that line of thinking, the FBI believes there is a “map” that supposedly charts the location of Tesla owners in the United States, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the bureau is investigating this. These actions have been described as a form of domestic terrorism by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The Daily Signal reported that “A website called ‘Dogequest’ claims to have published the personal information of Tesla owners across the country, and it turns the user’s cursor into a Molotov cocktail. The site’s operators, who also posted the exact locations of Tesla dealerships, say they will only remove personal information if the Tesla owners provide proof that they sold their electric vehicles.”

Townhall.com reports that three people have been federally charged for destruction of Tesla properties, using Molotov cocktails. They will "face the full force of the law" for allegedly firebombing Tesla cars and charging stations, according to a Department of Justice press release. The charges carry a penalty of from five years to twenty years in prison, if those charged are convicted.

"The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended," Bondi said. "Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars."

This attitude on the part of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are very welcome, after the long four years of selective prosecutions in the Biden administration. Violence, including setting fire to police stations and other properties — which the main stream media reported as “mostly peaceful” protests, as buildings burned in the background — were brushed off. 

However, parents complaining about their children’s education to their local school boards, and others carrying signs opposing abortions near abortion clinics, ranked higher with the DOJ, which labeled them “domestic terrorists.” 

And the squad of liberal prosecutors behaved like political operatives, instead of living up to their pledge to enforce laws to protect the public, for whom they work.

The country approves of and protects free speech, which often appears as organized protests. There seems to be many people who do not understand what protests actually are. And instead of peacefully protesting, they stoop to committing violent, destructive and dangerous acts. What they are doing is not protected speech; it is grounds for arrest and jail time.

Political actions and events are intended to persuade people to your way of thinking. The left’s misfocused thinking and dangerous violence only shows people how out of touch they are, and it turns people away. These illegal and dangerous antics must be stopped, and the perpetrators punished.

And what Trump and his administration are trying to do is to restore our federal government to its original design, which includes making government smaller, less controlling and less expensive. 

Why this should drive people to violence is difficult to understand, unless they believe that violence is the only path to get their way.

Moving toward a limited and cost-effective federal government

March 18, 2025

Our country is currently experiencing many problems, and some are quite serious. As President Donald Trump’s opponents constantly remind us, he has not yet corrected these problems, even though he has been in office for almost two months.

But seriously, folks, we do have some real problems. And what the most serious of them is depends to a large degree upon whom you ask about that. Some of them are: the national debt, inflation and the resulting high prices, illegal immigration, military strength, big government.

But in whatever order you rank these problems, none of them can be cured overnight; they will all take time to be worked out. That amount of time will be shortened if everyone involved will work together for that purpose. And perhaps that is the most complicated problem of all.

Of those many problems, one that has attracted much attention, and one that is actively being addressed, is the size, cost, and activities of the federal government. Due to the way things have been going for decades, we have become saddled with a national debt of $35.46 trillion, as of fiscal year 2024, and this figure is rising every second. As of last week, it was $36.22 trillion. And the impact of that is enormous: the interest on the national debt is billions of dollars per day.

Our government is too big, it costs too much to operate, its reach has grown far too broad, and it has expanded its power and authority well beyond its originally designed limits. Almost every year the government has a sizeable budget deficit, which adds more to the national debt.

And not only are we spending far too much, billions of those dollars are being spent improperly. Many decisions on spending are being made not by Congress, as is the constitutional process, but by unelected bureaucrats, many with partisan motives.

The entire operation of the government and its spending practices are currently being examined by the newly created and temporary Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Despite the fact that the people pay taxes on what they earn, on what they spend, annually on property they own, and the Social Security payments they receive, and businesses pay taxes on their operation, the country still spends more than it takes in.

In 1789, several years after the creation of the country, there were only three federal departments: State, War, and Treasury. Today, there are 15 departments. The government has five times the departments it had in the early years. And there are fair points being made that we don’t need some of them, and that others need to be downsized and/or merged.

One example of this is that we don’t need USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and that its work can be done by the State Department. Another is the Department of Education. Its job can be done by the individual states, who handled it before the department was created in 1979.

Liberal criticism of the Trump administration contains the scare tactic that Trump wants to create a dictatorship. That would mean a government that controls everything. But that situation has been building for many years, as evidenced by the increase of government departments and the authority they now exercise.

And what Trump is aiming for is reducing the size, cost and broad authority of the federal government. This is being done by DOGE and other efforts of the administration.

With our oversized federal bureaucracy, we are dependent upon other countries for some of the goods that our people need and want the most. And some of them are things that were once produced here, or that could be.

Due to various causes, many of those things were moved out of the U.S., and for the most part, the reason is that government interfered with domestic production by increased regulations that made production more difficult and more expensive. This caused production of some to be moved to other countries, and made foreign products more necessary.

Why shouldn’t a country as great as America not produce the things its people need and want at home? Why should we be at the mercy of other countries, some of whom love to make us suffer, when we can reorganize our country to produce nearly all of the things we need and want?

By appealing to companies that have moved out of the U.S. and encouraging them to return, and by attracting companies that have not been located here to move here, great things will happen. Thousands of new jobs will be created, and the prices on many items will be better. 

We can act to make domestic products more desirable than foreign made products, if some of them are threatening our own products.

Imagine a country that has an abundance of good jobs creating needed and wanted products. And one with a balanced budget, enough income to allow lowering the national debt, and with national spending low enough to allow a tax system with low tax rates that enable the people to keep more of their earnings.

All of this is possible. But the road to that future is not an easy one.

The problem with today’s protests at colleges and universities

March 11, 2025

Protests have been in the news over the last few months. They are not new things. Going back to the 60s and 70s, protests were reasonably common occurrences, and not unusual since then.

Some examples of what gave birth to protests were objections to the Vietnam War, and seeking an end to racial injustice and gender inequality.

The civil rights movement began in the 50s, but continued into the 60s and 70s. It was focused on racial equality, and ending segregation, and it involved nonviolent protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and marches.

Disagreement with the Vietnam War produced many protests and demonstrations, especially on college campuses. Other topics found sympathetic ears on college campuses, too. Major focuses were freedom of speech, and complaints about the status quo, which involved the women’s liberation movement, and the gay rights movement.

In the 60s there arose a rejection of traditional values, emphasis on peace and love, the hippie culture and alternative lifestyles.

For the most part, these protests and demonstrations were peaceful, but there were
some exceptions. And, they were protests of objectionable policies and ways of life that people didn’t like. 

Going back just a few years, we saw many protests based upon policies and events that were far less peaceful than those of the 60s and 70s. Property, both personal and public, was damaged and destroyed. And injuries to and the deaths of individuals occurred.

The recent campus protests have been mostly peaceful and involved students protesting, setting up tent encampments on campuses, and even taking over campus buildings. In some situations, both students and faculty members were actively protesting, as well as some college employees going on strike.

There are organizations representing and coaching the protesters. And these organizations and the protesters are making demands on the schools. Some of the demands are that schools sever financial and academic ties to Israel and companies involved in the current conflict, to disclose investments, and to cease accepting research funding. They also want the U.S. to end military support for Israel.

Protesters have damaged furniture and computers at one campus library, and shattered windows during their occupation of the buildings at another.

Several universities saw student protesters replace American flags with Palestinian flags on campus flagpoles. However, administrations and law enforcement personnel took down the Palestinian flags and put the American flags back up.

The major difference between these recent protests and those of the 60s and 70s, however, is that while actions and policies are part of the basis for the recent protests, the major factor is the high degree of hatred the protesters have for one group of people.

In the conflict between the Iranian terrorist proxy group Hamas and Israel, the college student protesters take the side of those living in Gaza and Hamas. Hamas is who the Palestinians selected as their government. The protesters express their objections to the nation of Israel, and hatred for Jews that live there. And because there are Jews living and attending colleges and universities in the United States, they are also the targets of the protester’s hatred.

Colleges and universities have begun to take steps to halt this unacceptable rule-breaking, and in some cases illegal activity. There have been many protesters arrested, some have been suspended or expelled, while others have been evicted from campus housing, and some have been financially charged for damages to campus property and facilities.

And while some, or hopefully all, of the protesters may get their just rewards for their breaking of rules and laws, will they ever understand or pay a price for their disgusting anti-Semitism?

“The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that it will be visiting 10 university campuses that have experienced anti-Semitic incidents since October 2023,” reported the Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs website. “Created pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Task Force set as its first priority to eradicate anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

The Task Force is aware of allegations that these schools have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from discrimination, potentially in violation of federal law, said Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and leader of the Task Force.

The 10 universities are: Columbia University; George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California.

Terrell said that the Task Force will meet with various groups to gather information about what has been happening, including university leadership, impacted students and staff, local law enforcement, and community members. 

“The President, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and the entire Administration are committed to ensuring that no one should feel unsafe or unwelcome on campus because of their religion,” Terrell said. “The Task Force’s mandate is to bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate anti-Semitism, particularly in schools.”

Anti-Semitism, or any sort of racial hatred or discrimination, is the precise opposite of what America is about. And it must be eliminated.

Trump’s efforts to downsize government has Democrats going crazy

March 4, 2025

The left’s attitude toward President Donald Trump is — unsurprisingly — unchanged since he won reelection last November. In fact, a recent Pew Research Center poll shows Democrats dislike everything Trump does. Imagine that! 

It seems that anything that can be said regarding Trump to make him or his actions look bad is approved and encouraged.

Here is one example: “President Donald Trump announced late Sunday that he was naming former Fox News personality Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director, the latest in a series of controversial picks for high-profile law enforcement positions,” as reported by Politico. And, another source referred to Bongino merely as a podcaster.

However, these sources of important information that people depend upon neglected to tell the public that Bongino had served 4 years as a New York police officer and 11 years as a U.S. Secret Service agent during the tenure of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has much more substantive law enforcement credentials than a Fox News personality or a podcaster. 

This is a good example how the left “sort of” reports things, using negative and/or derogatory information while leaving out relevant information in reporting on the Trump administration, its personnel, and its actions.

And it’s not just the news media that are indulging in this behavior.

The left likes to think of itself as open-minded, inclusive, tolerant and peace-loving. However, the extreme portion of the left pursues hatred and intolerance as normal elements in its dealings with, and references to Trump supporters and Trump administration officials. And since voters voted against the radical left last November, this behavior is becoming more mainstream.

Down in Louisiana an LSU law professor criticized both Trump and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry using vulgar language in class. A few days later, in response to student complaints, the professor was suspended by LSU pending an investigation into the complaints.

At a recent meeting of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Florida Democrat Rep. Maxwell Frost called President Trump “the grifter in chief,” and referred to Elon Musk as “President Musk.” 

At a town hall held by a Republican Congressman near Atlanta, Georgia recently, he was repeatedly interrupted with shouts and jeers. A similar result was found in a town hall in La Grande, Ore., where the audience booed and yelled. A Wisconsin Republican Congressman was booed after saying that Trump has done “some very good things.” 

In response to the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), one person said, “this is all a horror show,” and another person said that “Democrats should treat this as a war.” And California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters screamed, “We have got to tell Elon Musk that nobody elected your [expletive deleted].”

Continuing her rant, Waters added, “We’re in a crisis in this country because Trump and Elon Musk and the billionaires have decided they’re going to put us all in our place. They’re going to run this country. They’re going to make sure that they take over everything.”

"This is what the start of dictatorship looks like," Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said. "When you gut the U.S. Constitution and you install yourself as the sole power, that is how dictators are made."

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is trying to protect illegal aliens from being deported. This is a high priority for the Trump administration, especially for the violent criminals among the millions of illegals. “Believe it or not, in America EVERYONE has rights,” AOC wrote. “Citizen or not, we all should know our rights to protect ourselves and others from illegal search & seizure.” Even she ought to understand that the one right they do not have is to be here illegally.

Whether these Democrats actually do not know what they are talking about, or are deliberately distorting the truth for political gain, is an open question. Nothing seems to be more important to them than damaging Trump and his policies, the things that tens of millions of Americans support. Trump collected 77 million votes and 312 Electoral votes, when only 270 are required to be elected.

Doesn’t it seem odd that the Democrats who constantly complain about how “our democracy” is being treated, loudly demonstrate how little they understand about how “our democracy” — our constitutional republic — is supposed to work?

It seems to puzzle them, and in fact, set off their alarms, that by the U.S. Constitution the President of the United States of America, who was elected by a majority of the voters in the nation, controls the Administrative Branch. All of the people in the Administrative Branch work for the President, and they do not require Congressional approval or any approval outside that of the President.

A new Gallup poll shows that Democrats want their party to moderate their positions. And for the good of the people that those in Congress are elected to serve, this is a sensible idea.

The problem is that by moderating their talk and behavior they must abandon their political goals, which are more important to them than restoring and maintaining the nation as created by the Founders.

That is what Trump, Musk and the rest of the administration is working toward.

Coal’s future is better than the climate change faction hoped

February 25, 2025

Those of us who have been around for a good while remember the days when dozens of train cars loaded with coal filled the Bluefield railyard and were seen moving coal on the tracks throughout the area. The immense effect coal had on the economics of the southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia regions was a greatly appreciated fact. That is what actually built much of the area.

Over the years, coal’s use has declined substantially, due to various factors, a major one of which is the climate change mania that took aim at coal, oil and natural gas as fuels. This action cost the region a heavy price.

The climate change faction has been sounding the alarm that there is a dangerous level of CO2 in the atmosphere, and it needs to be immediately lowered. However, many scientists argue against that opinion. They say the CO2 level should be doubled to increase the growth of plants that in return produce the oxygen that feeds humanity and animals.

Even if the climate mania narrative is correct, the US effort to reduce CO2 by mandating cutting back on coal, oil and natural gas use made little to no difference in the CO2 level. The “improvements” we made were rendered moot by the greatly increased use by other nations. So, while thousands were put out of work, and other negative economic results were achieved in the US, China and India made that all seem pointless.

Friends of Coal is a non-profit organization based in Charleston, WV supporting the continued use of coal. “The supposed energy transition from fossil fuels to a suite of government-supported alternatives like wind and solar has always seemed more of a marketing campaign than reality,” a Friends of Coal newsletter stated. “It’s a transition that we are asked to believe has been ongoing since at least 2015 and the signing of the Paris Climate Accords, yet the percentage of primary energy supplied by oil, natural gas, and coal continues to hover right at the 80 percent level despite all the trillions of dollars in government subsidies thrown at the problem.”

Citing new leadership in West Virginia and the nation, Friends of Coal says that West Virginia’s coal industry has strong support for its part in “powering homes, businesses and national infrastructure.”

Coal also plays an important role in West Virginia’s economy by providing 15 percent of the state’s annual revenue and more than 50,000 jobs.

While coal’s part in producing electricity for the nation has been diminished over recent years, it is still active in that role, and is prepared to step up to help meet the predicted need for more electric power in the near future.

And the new US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, told interviewers at Bloomberg that the time has come to halt the closing of coal-fired power plants that resulted from the war on coal under the direction of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. "Coal has been essential to the United States' energy system for over 100 years,” he said. “It's been the largest source of global electricity for nearly 100 years, and it will be for decades to come, so we need to be realistic about that.”

And there is more good news for the industry. Increases in coal’s existing uses, and new uses for it are on the horizon.

Forbes reports that “India and the U.S. are plugging a hole in the market for steel-making coal caused by declining Chinese demand,” and the “dominance by China for steel-making, or coking coal, is fading as the Chinese Government encourages a slowdown in steel production.”

A report on the World Economic Forum website suggests that the uses of coal have not been fully realized. Coal is a highly varied material and its molecular complexity has not been explored for new uses.

Where coal has been being refined into basic elements and then used as a feedstock for the chemical industry’s production of plastics, dyes and solvents, it now is thought to be a basis for producing solar panels, batteries and electronic devices. 

It may also be used in manufacturing carbon products. Whereas petrochemical or biomass feedstocks are now used for products like carbon fiber and carbon additives for cements and the like, coal is now seen as a likely substitute for these processes. And, it has the further advantage of being a fairly cheap base material, which is a very positive factor.

Other new developments are also helping make coal more useful and less polluting. Through gasification and liquefaction processes, coal can be converted into synthetic gases or liquids, and these products can be processed into valued chemicals like methanol and hydrogen, which are used in industrial processes.

And processes like high efficiency low emission technologies work to reduce the emissions of coal-fired power plants. Carbon capture and storage processes are being developed to prevent CO2 emission from entering the atmosphere.

These new developments in the use of coal hold promise for the industry. And while it might not grow the industry to its former size and influence, it could again become a strong economic factor in places like southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia.