The photos of ill-equipped Ukrainian soldiers saying sad good-byes to their fleeing wives and children and going off to fight the invading armies of one of the world’s most powerful militaries conjure up a time in American history when something similar was happening here. Back in 1775, in Massachusetts, families were bidding sad good-byes to badly equipped volunteers, known as Minutemen, as they went off to battle a mammoth army with the latest armaments, controlled by a superpower that insisted the American colonies were its prized possession.
Those men fighting against overwhelming odds to repel foreign invaders, and defend the right of Ukrainians to speak and gather freely, and choose their leaders in free elections, have riven the world. We are witnessing a classic case of David fighting off Goliath, and while it may take some time for their struggle to succeed, it has come as far as it has over the last ten days because the Ukrainians are much more motivated to defend freedom than the invaders are to extend the glory of their dictator ruler Vladimir Putin. (Remember, America’s Revolutionary War dragged on for eight years, through many periods of seeming hopelessness and battle losses.)
Ironically, while Ukraine’s struggle has riven most of the world, in the U.S., the home of the citizen soldier fending off an invading colonial power, a significant number of people still can’t get over their infatuation with the tyrant Vladimir Putin. The previous American president, Donald Trump, continues bending over to kiss Putin’s rear end, calling his planned assault on Ukraine “genius.” I’ve seen claims on Facebook that Putin is really trying to destroy secret biological warfare labs in Ukraine, that the whole mess is some kind of conspiracy involving top American infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, and of course, that it’s all part of a Zionist conspiracy. These Americans refuse to let even the clearest examples of tyrannical excess deter them from their tightly held narrative, ignoring the reality that Russia is now not only likely committing war crimes in Ukraine, but blocking access to Facebook and other social media sites in Russia (and referring to them as purveyors of ‘fake news”); in other words, debates over war policy aren’t allowed in Russia.
It all recalls the days of the 2016, when the Trump campaign for president had as its campaign chairman an American who made his living (and a very nice one at that) helping the Putin-supported pols in Ukraine. After Trump was elected, and his own attorney general appointed a special prosecutor (Robert Muller) to investigate the campaign’s ties to the Russians, Trump’s supporters went crazy. What’s wrong with the Russians? Why, Putin is against genetically modified food, went some of the arguments on .
I recall those weird days not to say ‘I told you so,’ but rather to wonder whether the American infatuation with a maniacal tyrant means we wouldn’t have it within us today to do what the Ukrainians are doing. Would we, or would we let attachment to fairy tales about cuddly and manly Vladimir Putin color our judgment?
This isn’t idle questioning. Putin has made clear he wants to restore Russia to the days when it jockeyed with America as the world’s super power. Clearly, if his armies could run roughshod over Ukraine, he would seek new targets in Europe, and then eventually train his focus on the U.S., perhaps in concert with his allies in China. I don’t think it occurs to those Americans who think liberals and Democrats are the country’s most serious enemies that we could some day face Russia and China as potential conquerors, so deluded are these Americans that other Americans are conspiring against them.
Do we still have it in us as a nation to fight for the values that make America such a free and exciting nation? Could we do what the Ukrainians are doing now? It remains to be seen.
David thank you for this piece.
Putin, Stalin, Hitler, Trump, all come from the same genetic material. Telling lies to convince the fearful masses of their theories and philosophies that assure their own dominating success.
America is not perfect. We have done things in the past that I regret. Our secret CIA torture sites post 911, dropping bombs on Japan. These are sad distractions from what our founders dedicated themselves to.
But in America we have secured the rights to protest, speak and write about these things and not go to jail. I can write this blog entry knowing that no one will come out me in jail for saying what I believe.
That’s my America.
Putin must be stopped. It is my hope that the good people of Russia will rise up and claim their our fate for a better future in Russia. The Russian ( the young at least ) have smelled the freedoms of the west through social networks.
Sadly, to few staff up together and Putin arrests the few that do speak and stand for a better Russia. There must be mass uprising and there must be a civil declaration that Putin is not Russia. Even the Oligarchs are pissed at him. Who will be the next leader of Russia ?
Ukraine must somehow regain the control of its airspace. AWACS and electronic suppression of Russian missile systems and air superiority is critical.
I have never been more supportive of a North American and EU “iron dome” missile protection system. We must be able to shield ourselves from any sort of incoming missile or ICBM. Until we can do that any tyrant with a nuke can hold us hostage and do what ever they want with us. Fear of WW3 and a battle with the Russians is a real concern. If we could block any incoming threat we could join those brave people of Ukraine and say: “Russian Ship Go Fuck Yourself “ and really mean it and really act on it.
This can not be the playbook for future world democracy and freedom for all people. We are currently Putins subjects. He is running the show even though we have applied massive economic chokeholds to his power.
He does not care. He is s tyrant. He bows to one thing. Power.
Stalin said: true power comes out of the end of a gun. That’s what Putin in his KGB mind believes. Time to get real and protect the world from this cancer.
Bombing civilians…. A war crime. Fighting near a nuclear site. War crimes.
Special forces: Sounds like a mission to capture Putin and drag him to The Hague.
Putin just declared that our economic sanctions are a declaration of war.
Time to lock down Ukraine Airspace. Just do it! We can not control the actions of a madman. But we can protect the Ukrainian people and stand up for what is right. If Putin pushes a nuclear button that’s on him. We will put one in the Kremlin. The world can not function if superpowers disregard basic standards of conduct. He will understand power. That’s the only thing he does understand.
One last thing. Any of you Trump lovers…
When Trump says he thinks Putin is a “savvy genius”. That is grounds to arrest Trump for treason. Giving support and comfort to the enemy is the very definition of treason. Trump took 15 boxes of classified state secrets from the White House when he left. Did he share those docs with the Russians or others ?
Time to end this charade. Trump is a criminal and Putin lover. Inaction is tantamount to complicit support.
When Hitler came to power it was over time. It took years of lies one after another … bigger and bigger and an erosion of truth for Hitler to rise.
Stop this cancer in its path now. See this for what it is.
Trump is the de facto leader of a large group of Americans who, for whatever reason, are more comfortable going after other Americans than foreign tyrants. So we now see Republicans blaming President Biden for the Ukraine tragedy even though he has united Europe more than it ever has been in imposing the harshest sanctions ever on Russia. It’s quite disturbing, since American political parties usually pull together during a time of extreme foreign crises, like the invasion of Ukraine.
I agree with you that Trump has committed treasonous acts in supporting Putin, and attacking the U.S. The sad thing is that the Biden administration has, thus far, declined to prosecute him for sedition, inciting insurrection, and related crimes. I wrote about this in The Nation in January.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-hitler-coup/
Joe Biden’s Presidency has been a disaster. He and the democrats are funding Russia’s war against the Ukraine by buying Russian crude oil and petroleum products that hit a record high last year, averaging about 700,000 barrels per day. In joining rising calls to stop buying Russian fossil-fuel products and increase domestic production, Elon Musk tweeted, “Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately …Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures.” The same can be said for Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government in Canada.
You have documentation for your assertion: “Biden and the democrats are funding Russia’s war against the Ukraine by buying Russian crude oil and petroleum products….”? The U.S. is energy independent. But for whatever it is worth, many countries buy Russian oil and gas, especially Europe. And if the world puts an embargo on Russian energy products, which may well be coming, I guarantee you’ll have other criticisms of America’s effort to help Ukraine, per the Fox mouthpiece.
“Electric-car baron Elon Musk calls for increasing U.S. oil and gas to combat Russia”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/5/electric-car-baron-elon-musk-calls-increasing-us-o/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_content=newsalert&utm_term=newsalert&bt_ee=1ZXwikDGvp2CdNQyDMoT3u43pUyvxVMtobzDVPWKkgSFTfqXIPjlX5hsSDnFHvgY&bt_ts=1646519223872
“U.S. imports of Russian crude oil and petroleum products hit a record high last year, averaging about 700,000 barrels per day, prompting a bipartisan push for legislation to enact a ban on fossil-fuel products from Russia.”
Dear Ken,
I totally disagree with your assertion that Biden is supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Biden doesn’t buy Russian oil. We the people do! That’s probably going to come to an end also. Watch gas go to $6 per gallon. The EU has been at $8 per gallon for years. The increase will spur innovation. You watch. Denmark has electric cars all over the place. It’s the conservative right wing Trump loving cow boys that want cheap gas for huge 4×4 trucks that refuse to change.
Biden has been steadfast in his months of warning everyone of the impending Russian assault. Biden sent billions worth of shoulder fired anti air and anti armor missiles each costing about $110,000 each. Biden strongly condemned Putin in his State of the Union address.
It’s time to be American! Stop this partisan BS. Time for humanity to win.
Mark
I agree with Tulsi Gabbard and her analysis of the Biden administration’s response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine versus how that same administration dealt with the American people during this so-called pandemic… “therein lies the hypocrisy”.
You should really take the time to listen to Tulsi Gabbard’s CPAC speech… It is truly unfortunate that the Democrat Party, because they were so completely consumed with power and ousting Trump, that they forgoed the opportunity to elect Gabbard as their Presidential Candidate…
Here is the link to Tulsi Gabbard’s Full CPAC 2022 speech
David, thank you for addressing the tragedy in Ukraine and linking it to our terrible domestic partisanship. I hope we here in the U.S. are willing to endure some energy scarcity, price increases, and other hardships that are nothing compared to what the Ukrainian people are going through. We have to make some sacrifices to help democracy flourish.
Ken,
Tulsi is incorrect.
Biden does care about the American People. Tucker Carlson is a bucket of Putin crap.
Anyone who loves Trump and or Putin has serious mental illness.
Standing up with the EU and NATO is the best thing we can do. Being unified in purpose to send pain to the Russians is the one thing that will make them take notice and over throw Putin.
Fox News nauseates me. They will stand behind Putin just because Biden is against Putin.
It’s un American and it’s sick.
What’s best for the American people is not low gas prices. What’s best for the spoiled American people is a taste of world reality.
High gas prices will force critical change that we all need to protect our climate and move to a better energy system.
America is not alone in the world. What is best for us is the same thing that is best for everyone. Tulsi got that part wrong.
Mark, you’ve made several off the wall fierce assumptions that are incorrect.
First of all, Tulsi Gabbard and Elon Musk are right on the mark with their observations… The Russian invasion of Ukraine has exemplified the narrow-minded foolishness of our governments’ anti-energy laws in that the Canadian government and the United States government have chosen to cancel safe pipelines that transport ethically produced Canadian oil in favor of exporting oil and gas from countries such as Russia whose political elites don’t give a rats ass about how their oil or gas is produced and gets to market… In essence they are financing Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine to the tune of billions of dollars and even some Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) “shrugged at the Biden administration’s release of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Tuesday, describing it as a “Band-Aid” on a “self-inflicted wound” and calling on the president to revive the canceled Keystone XL pipeline”. It is without a doubt, a “self-inflicted wound”, along with all the other all-encompassing regressive measures currently being used by the Biden and Trudeau administrations.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/24/manchin-begs-biden-to-revive-keystone-pipeline-after-oil-tap/
Secondly, the climate is what it is… Those who believe that they can control the climate via regressive taxes and regulations are making a grave error. The people who are suffering the most because of those top-down policies that drive up the price of gas and oil products as well as make those products less available, are the very people who can least afford it. We’ve had this discussion before on David’s blog and I’ll reiterate what I previously stated, “CO2 is not a pollutant, it is a plant nutrient… it presence in the atmosphere is essential and self-balancing… it is directly proportional to plant growth and likewise photosynthesis and the amount of oxygen in the environment. Patrick Moore, a forest Biologist and past president of Greenpeace correctly and wisely pointed out, “When the slight global warming that occurred between 1970 and 2000 came to a virtual standstill, the doomsayers adopted “climate change,” which apparently means that all extreme weather events are caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) … The truth is CO2 is the most important food for all life on Earth, including marine life. It is the main food for algae, which in turn is the food for the entire food chain in the sea. For some reason the proponents of catastrophic global warming ignore this fact. They talk of “carbon pollution” as if CO2 is a poison. If there were no CO2 in the atmosphere there would be no life on this planet. Surely that should be enough to permit questioning the certainty of those who demonize this key molecule.”
As far as the Russian people challenging and attempting to “overthrow” their tyrannical leaders such as Putin; many have attempted to do so in the past and have paid a tremendous price as a result. There are powerful elite groups in this world that have no interest in freedom or peace… their sole objective is absolute control, the prerequisite to their glutinous appetite for absolute power. Their modus operandi is “might it right”. However, as Gabriel in the movie “The Mission” pointed out, “If might is right, then love has no place in the world. It may be so, it may be so. But I don’t have the strength to live in a world like that”… And as the story/movie demonstrated Gabriel died in passive opposition to that overbearing approach.
Correction in brakes… in that the Canadian government and the United States government have chosen to cancel safe pipelines that transport ethically produced Canadian oil in favor of (importing) oil and gas from countries such as Russia.
“By attacking Canadian energy, Trudeau has left the world more dependent on dictators who use oil money for war.
Unleash Canadian energy to take the money away from dictators and give paycheques to our people instead.” Canadian Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre
Sign here if you agree: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLScdBBkz17X…/viewform…
I love that, Ken, ‘ethically produced Canadian oil….” And the CO2 it produces nourishes plants. There’s one other problem with CO2 you fail to acknowledge, that “increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are responsible for about two-thirds of the total energy imbalance that is causing Earth’s temperature to rise.”
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide
The problem facing the Russian people is one that faces all people living under tyrannical rule–once the tyrant gets in, he is very difficult to dislodge. That’s why the attempted coup in the U.S. Jan. 6, 2021, was so significant. Had Trump succeeded in overturning the 2020 election and remaining in office as Dictator in Chief, we’d be facing a much more difficult situation of trying to get rid of him, since he would control the tools of control by force. Democracy is a messy business, but it is far and away preferable to the alternative, as Winston Churchill put it.
I can see where the concept of ethically produced/sourced oil would be difficult for you to imagine considering your stance on climate change and the role that you believe petroleum products play in that regard… That said the concept of ethically produce oil is no different than an ethically produced food product or other natural resource whereby they are obtained in an ethical way, which includes upholding rights, decent working conditions, health and safety, good business ethics and more.
The following WSJ article titled, “Biden’s Bizarre Oil Diplomacy” correctly points out how President Biden shortly after he took office, placed himself between a rock and a hard place… the article states, “President Biden is scrambling to contain soaring oil prices, which closed at more than $123 a barrel on Monday. It speaks volumes about this Administration that it’s seeking help from Vladimir Putin’s client in Venezuela and our estranged Saudi allies rather than U.S. shale producers or our Canadian friends.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-bizarre-oil-diplomacy-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-russia-vladimir-putin-saudi-arabia-ukraine-11646694275
You fail to mention one other big problem with Canadian oil: it comes from tar sands, which require huge amounts of carbon-based energy to convert into crude oil. It’s a messy polluting business. Here is a description of its role in Canadian energy:
“The sands pump out more than 3 million barrels of oil per day, helping make Canada the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and the top exporter of crude to the United States. Their economic benefits are significant: Oil is the nation’s top export, and the mining and energy sector as a whole accounts for nearly a quarter of Alberta’s provincial economy. But the companies’ energy-hungry extraction has also made the oil and gas sector Canada’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. And despite the extreme environmental costs, and the growing need for countries to shift away from fossil fuels, the mines continue to expand, digging up nearly 500 Olympic swimming pools-worth of earth every day.”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21112021/tar-sands-canada-oil/
Yes, I accept the reality of climate change. Most Americans and Canadians accept it as well, because all they have to do is look around and see the ever-more-frequent extremes of weather events like tornados, hurricanes, droughts and fires, together with a dearth of snow and rising oceans. The data on climate support those observations.
President Biden has pushed to transition America away from carbon fuels. Unfortunately, there are enough senators whose states benefit from coal and oil production that those efforts have stalled, and the Ukraine war created a bunch of other oil-related pressures. One positive that could come out of the Ukraine tragedy is if it pushes the world from its oil addiction (and reliance on tyrants like Putin) toward more reliance on alternative energy like solar, wind, and hydro.
Bottom line is humanity.
Energy, politics, greed what ever.
You don’t kill people. Putin be damned.
Why is Joe Biden blaming Russia for high gas prices knowing very well that he is the one that cancelled the Keystone pipeline shortly after taking over as President, which promised 800K+ barrels of oil a day from Canada, As Premier Jason Kenney of Alberta states, “If President Biden had not vetoed (Keystone XL), it would be done later this year. 840,000 barrels of democratic energy that could’ve displaced the 600.000 barrels of Russian conflict oil that is filled with the blood of Ukrainians.”
https://twitter.com/TrueNorthCentre/status/1501241585694089224
Ken,
Keystone pipeline does not hinder import of oil from Canada. The same amount of oil comes in. It just uses other routes. Keystone was going to make shortcut and make it more efficient. Look at oil imports from Canada ??. They did not go down.
Why not increase the utilization of American Ethanol. It is currently at 10% max blend. It could be 20% or even higher. That would offset much of the imported deficit and American farmers would benefit.
The problem is with the oil lobby! You watch. I know some insiders. Ethanol mandates are going to rise pretty soon.
Stop blaming Biden. He is trying his damn best to stop a tyrant but not start a nuclear war . It is not easy to straddle that line.
My bet is that Putin is going to do something like shoot off a small nuke or go biological warfare. With that act, the moral imperative will be lifted and the Israeli Massad would then end Putins miserable life opening an opportunity for some more moral and popular oligarch to take over.
next verse in the sad ballad of Miller’s Farms, plural >>>
since he chose to make a public spectacle of it, I am at liberty to comment = it’s now obvious that this Amishman is what the Bible calls “stiffnecked”. The very opposite of ‘teach-able’.
Next stop on the federal railroad will be a gaol cell, where he’ll have time to read Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, who coined the term “Penitentiary” … hopeful that such confinement would incline the offender to be penitent.
for bonus points, kids |||||||| did Amos Miller sin against God Almighty, or The Beast System? |||||||||
there will be a test at the End
…………….
A month ago, a federal judge appointed an expert to work with Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller to make sure he complied with food safety laws and court orders — something he’s shown an unwillingness to do for years.
The arrangement hasn’t gotten off to a good start.
Three times, the expert visited Miller’s Organic Farm, but he never was able to inspect it, despite a court order.
The first time — one week after U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith’s appointed George Lapsley as expert — Lapsley said an employee told him Miller wasn’t there and refused him entrance. Even so, he said he was able to see workers packaging meat and poultry, which isn’t permitted until Miller is in compliance.
On a March 4 visit, Lapsley said Miller handed him a note that read, “What are the compelling public interests to be here? Please respond by paper.”
When Lapsley asked to talk with him, Miller asked about his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. When Lapsley told Miller the right concerned law enforcement, he said Miller shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
And so on Wednesday afternoon Miller, government representatives and a frustrated defense attorney who’s been trying to steer Miller in the right direction, dialed in to a status conference call with the judge for a course-correction.
“You appear to be simply refusing to acknowledge the authority and the jurisdiction of this court in this matter,” Smith told Miller.
Miller tried to ask the judge if he read a recent filing he made. The largely unintelligible filing espoused “sovereign citizen” rhetoric.
Sovereign citizens believe in the baseless assertion that individuals, and not courts or lawmakers, can decide what laws to follow.
Smith said he wouldn’t recognize the sovereign citizen organization that Miller has been relying on for advice.
Miller tried another tack.
“If I may address the court, what is the compelling public interest in this case?” Miller asked. He said because he only sells his “nutrient dense food” to private buying club members in his buying club, he isn’t engaging in public commerce.
“You’re concerned about what the public interest is in protecting food safety?” Smith replied, sounding exasperated.
Miller’s attorney, Steven Lafuente, of Dallas, Texas, said he was “at my wits’ end” trying to reason with Miller.
He said Miller was a nice man, but impressionable.
“He has lent his ear to people who are sovereign citizens who have no idea what they are doing. And he’s going to get himself in a lot of trouble,” Lafuente told the judge.
That will be seen in about a month. Smith asked Miller if he would cooperate with Lapsley. Miller said he would.
Smith also directed Miller to come up with $50,000 by March 18 as a good-faith showing toward paying more than $250,000 in fines and costs Smith already levied. Some of the money will be used to pay Lapsley.
If Miller isn’t showing cooperation in an April 12 status conference, Smith warned Miller, it could turn into a contempt hearing.
A possible outcome of that could be jail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Sullivan told Smith that already, other government entities were urging jail time for Miller’s noncompliance.
Miller’s first came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016, when the Food and Drug Administration said it identified Listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk; the agency found the Listeria to be genetically similar to the bacteria found in two people who developed listeriosis — one of whom died — after consuming raw milk
David,
Solar, wind and nuclear are not viable alternatives… they are horrendously expensive and require an enormous amount of petroleum-based energy to establish, maintain and dispose of once they reach the end of their lifecycle. How many landfills as pictured in the following article will be needed worldwide to bury non-recyclable non-degradable windmill blades in addition to the burial sites needed to dispose of broken-down solar panels whose hazardous materials are not recyclable. Can the global warming alarmist truly comprehend the amount of petroleum-based products that will be required in order to dig these massive graves and bury the above items under hundreds of thousands of tons of fill, not to mention, the cost and energy usage required to decommission nuclear power plants once they reach their safe operating limit. According to the United States EIA (Energy Information Administration) in an article titled “Decommissioning nuclear reactors is a long-term and costly process”…“As of 2017, a total of 10 commercial nuclear reactors in the United States have been successfully decommissioned, and another 20 U.S. nuclear reactors are currently in different stages of the decommissioning process.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8294057/Hundreds-non-recyclable-fiberglass-wind-turbine-blades-pictured-piling-landfills.html
Maybe you can explain to me, Ken, why you and other extreme climate change deniers hold on so tightly to your opposition to natural energy sources like the sun and wind and water. You’re all for natural locally produced food, but when it comes to energy, you oppose all efforts to shift to less polluting, locally produced energy (what could be more local than the sun shining on your home or the wind blowing through your neighborhood?) Now, you cited an article in the Daily Mail, which shows photos of windmill blades disposed of in a landfill, but you ignored the meat of the article, which discussed a company producing windmill blades that are in fact easy to recycle. Here’s the section:
“The company uses material from the blades to make fiberglass pellets that can be turned into flooring, parking bollards, warehouse pallets, and other items.
‘We can process 99.9% of a blade and handle about 6,000 to 7,000 blades a year per plant,’ CEO Don Lilly told Bloomberg. ‘When we start to sell to more builders, we can take in a lot more of them. We’re just gearing up.’
Like nearly every other industry, the U.S. renewable energy industry is reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, which has delayed construction, put thousands of skilled laborers out of work and sowed doubts about solar and wind projects on the drawing board. [This article is from May 2020, when covid just starting.]
As many as 120,000 jobs in solar and 35,000 in wind could be lost, trade groups say.
The wind industry is plagued by slowdowns in obtaining parts from overseas, getting them to job sites and constructing new turbines.
‘The industry was on a tremendous roll right up until the last month or two,’ said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. ‘That reversal is stunning and problematic.’
Fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal remain the leading providers of the nation’s electricity, with nuclear power another key contributor, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
But renewable sources – wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass and geothermal – have jumped in the last decade as production costs have fallen and many states have ordered utilities to make greater use of renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewables produced nearly one-fifth of the country’s energy last year.
The EIA predicts renewable energy, despite recent setbacks, will grow 11 percent this year – an indication of the sector’s strong surge before the economy tanked. Meanwhile, coal-fired power is expected to decline 20 percent and gas generation to grow just 1 percent.
The wind and solar industries have asked lawmakers and federal agencies for help, including an extension of their four-year deadlines for completing projects without losing tax benefits. Similar assistance was granted during the 2008-09 recession.”
What this article is saying is that renewable energy is coming way down in cost, that it’s replacing carbon-based energy, and that entrepreneurs and scientists are coming up with fixes to the disposable problems. Yet you deniers keep denying, and pushing for disgusting polluting energy forms that contribute seriously to climate change. I just don’t get it. Is it just change that bothers you? Or do you see some conspiracy in the studies finding our climate is changing? Do you hate the ‘elites’ producing the research about climate change? Something else?
David, I am not a climate change denier and never have been, nor do I not oppose natural energy sources… as a farmer I value them and make use of them every day. I have always been a proponent of hydroelectric power generation over nuclear power generation. What I am opposed to is this reductionist approach to climate change and the attempt by humans to control the climate via measures that are guaranteed to cause more harm than good. When considering the climate as a whole and all of the factors that influence its variability, this alarmist driven anthropogenic global warming/climate change narrative simply did not and does not make sense.
The following WSJ article titled “If You Want ‘Renewable Energy,’ Get Ready to Dig” summarizes in part the big problem with developing, maintaining and disposing of these so-called alternative carbon neutral energy devices…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-want-renewable-energy-get-ready-to-dig-11565045328
“A single electric-car battery weighs about 1,000 pounds. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving and processing more than 500,000 pounds of raw materials somewhere on the planet. The alternative? Use gasoline and extract one-tenth as much total tonnage to deliver the same number of vehicle-miles over the battery’s seven-year life.”
“When electricity comes from wind or solar machines, every unit of energy produced, or mile traveled, requires far more materials and land than fossil fuels. That physical reality is literally visible: A wind or solar farm stretching to the horizon can be replaced by a handful of gas-fired turbines, each no bigger than a tractor-trailer.”
“Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of nonrecyclable plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass—not to mention other metals. Global silver and indium mining will jump 250% and 1,200% respectively over the next couple of decades to provide the materials necessary to build the number of solar panels, the International Energy Agency forecasts. World demand for rare-earth elements—which aren’t rare but are rarely mined in America—will rise 300% to 1,000% by 2050 to meet the Paris green goals. If electric vehicles replace conventional cars, demand for cobalt and lithium, will rise more than 20-fold. That doesn’t count batteries to back up wind and solar grids.”
“Building enough wind turbines to supply half the world’s electricity would require nearly two billion tons of coal to produce the concrete and steel, along with two billion barrels of oil to make the composite blades. More than 90% of the world’s solar panels are built in Asia on coal-heavy electric grids.”
Ken, you really need to do a better job of reviewing your sources. This is from the WSJ editorial page (as opposed to the news pages). WSJ editorials are known for being extreme right wing trash (when I worked there, the editorial writers were generally understood to be ‘neanderthal’). Just to give you one example from this editorial you linked to (written in 2019), it says ‘global silver and indium mining will jump 250% and 1,200% respectively over the next couple of decades to provide the materials necessary to build the number of solar panels….” So I went and did some of the heavy lifting you should do before citing this trash–silver and indium have barely changed in price over the last decade, a time of greatly expanded production of solar panels, and a time when the prices of solar panels have plunged, and their efficiency has spiked. I have to assume all the other data is equally suspect….for example, all the extreme material requirements for “building one wind turbine” ignores the reality that building a second, third, and fourth turbine will be just a fraction of the first. You use all kinds of fancy adjectives to describe what’s wrong with current efforts to combat climate change, but basically you’re saying you just don’t like the people who are trying to reduce the growing impact of climate change….pretty lame.
I did check into Mark P. Mills the author of the article. Politics aside, his credentials are very impressive to say the least and his knowledge on the topic of “green Energy” is equally impressive. He was recently interviewed on the Bill Walton show.
is this officially-enough sourced, for you, Mr Gumpert, so as to wake you up to the scandal of the century?
The Database of the Department of Defence, itself?
CONGRESS GETS THE COVIC FRAUD EVIDENCE
Attorney Thomas Renz, who publicized data from the
Department of Defense showing a significant rise in serious
illness and injury in military personnel following the rollout of
COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, has issued a special legal notice
with nearly 200 pages of supporting evidence.
Some of the most alarming data included in the evidence
comes from a trio of DoD whistleblowers, who shared proof
from the Defense Military Epidemiological Database of a
nearly 1,000 percent overall rise in injuries and diseases.
This database, Renz reports, is “considered the premier
epidemiological database in the world, monitored by an entire
division of the military, part of the data feeding into the DHHS
related to vaccine safety, and frequently cited by public health
professionals in peer reviewed publications.”
He presented the data in a public hearing to Senator Ron
Johnson, a ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations. Senator Johnson then wrote a letter to the
Secretary of Defense about it, and he received a response
stating that there had been a “glitch” in the database
impacting data from 2016 to 2020 and that 2021 had not been
an anomaly.
According to Renz, if that had truly been the case, the
Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Anthony
Fauci, the Department of Defense, the White House and
public health officials throughout the world were wrong for five
years – including 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
Referring to the fact that the DoD later adjusted the figures for
the years it claims were affected by the glitch to make 2021’s
numbers appear more consistent with previous years, he
wrote: “The glitch then magically repaired itself in 2021
despite the fact that the error went unnoticed until we shared
this information in 2022.”
The Pentagon has yet to explain why the real numbers were
not in the official system for five years and where the originally
published numbers came from, nor have they explained why
2021’s figures were supposedly accurate but previous figures
were not.
However, what we do know is that one of two things must be
true depending on whether 2021 was abnormal or the
previous five years’ figures were indeed similar to 2021, as
Renz points out: “Either there was mass vaccine injury in the
military, or our military has been very unhealthy and the
Pentagon completely lost control over epidemiological
surveillance of these health issues for years. Either way, this
is the story of the year.”
Significant rises seen in several
serious illnesses
Among the data found in the DoD database and highlighted
by Johnson’s letter was a 2,181 percent rise in hypertension
from 2020 to 2021, a 1,048 percent rise in diseases of the
nervous system, a 680 percent rise in multiple sclerosis, a
551 percent rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome, and rises well
above 100 percent of various types of cancer and infertility.
Other data Renz wanted to draw attention to include a DoD
document that shows Dr. Fauci lied by claiming the virus was
a “crisis of the unvaxxed” and demonstrating that the jabs are
even less effective among minorities and a Pfizer document
proving the dangers of the vaccines were known early on and
that potential side effects have been covered up.
There is also a DoD Senior Leading Briefing demonstrating
that a quarter of active duty and reserves have not yet been
fully vaccinated and are therefore subject to dismissal from
the military.
In addition to calling for the vaccine mandates for military
personnel to be lifted immediately, Renz is pleading with
officials to: “look at the facts and take a stand.”
https://www.newstarget.com/2022-03-16-evidence-congress-covid-vaccines-fraud-history.html
Eight years ago, I started a fight with the FDA over their ban on interstate commerce of raw milk. It started as a simple well researched citizens petition. The FDA refused to answer it even though required to answer in 6 months. I then sued the FDA to compel an answer. They then answered with an off the wall whacko paper written like the writer was intoxicated with no oxygen. Claims were totally wild. No science and plenty of lies. Yes lies. Assumptions, exaggerations and bias. It was ugly. Denial of Pubmed articles they publish themselves. It was crazy writing.
I decided to completely redirect my strategy and reconsider the battle tactics.
I joined with FTCLDF and RAWMI and reapproached the battle with a narrowed focus. A battle we could maybe win. A battle to overturn the FDA ban on just raw butter.
Commercially produced Raw butter has a perfect history of zero illnesses and zero deaths in 100 years ( CDC data ).
We then wrote another citizens petition. Then sued the FDA again. We lost. The FDA made claims that were unfounded and wrong. We appealed. Then appealed again.
On April 8th I will stand before three judges at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in WA DC. Standing next to me will be a very distinguished and skilled appeals lawyer from FTCLDF. Oral arguments will go back and forth with the FDA.
The FDA will claim raw butter is the same as Rawmilk. We will argue that they are not the same. Cultured cream salted raw Butter is very low moisture at .8 water activity with low pH and salt. Those three elements make raw butter highly pathogen resistant. That’s the FDA science under FSMA. They just don’t want to hear their own science.
We also make the case that long ago Congress prohibited any agency from creating a “standard of identity” for raw butter. The FDA did exactly that by requiring pasteurization of butter and denial of raw butters existence.
This is a battle for the rights of all citizens to access healing brain building nutrient dense enzyme rich raw butter.
If we win… raw butter flows across America.
It we lose… onward to the Supreme Court!
When we win we take down one brick from the wall that separates farmers from their customers all over America.
Oysters kill 20-30 people every year. Yet They are not banned over state lines. This really shows the huge unjustified FDA bias against Whole Foods and especially anything raw in the dairy category.
Say a prayer on April 8th. ??????
What more can be expected Mark, when dealing with officials who use uncompromising, irrational, contradictory, quasi science-based narratives for the sake of outright control. Indeed, an overbearing outright control-based narrative that refuses to allow for critical thinking, relies on and fuels the publics fear of microbes and uses militaristic/religious tactics to reinforce that fear in order to convince/indoctrinate people into believing that what is being done, is so done for the greater good/safety of society.
As Bertrand Russell astutely pointed out, “Where there is evidence, no one speaks of faith… We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence.” Indeed, and therein lies the problem when using the publics narrow minded fear of microbes in order to promote a rigid way of thinking with respect to the perceived and more often than not role that microbes play visa vis the causation of disease and illness.
Overall, we rate News Target a quackery level pseudoscience and a tin foil hat conspiracy website, as well as extreme right-wing biased. This is one of the most discredited sources on the internet.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/news-target/
I almost always research either the website or the person when someone presents a story or individual that I have never heard of, this is some of what I found on Mark P. Mills
The video is hosted by “Prager University.” My only previous exposure to the organization’s videos had been this excellent one on the Confederacy by Colonel Ty Seidule, a professor of History at West Point who has since been placed on the Pentagon commission that will examine bases named after Confederate generals. Seemed legit!
Now that I’ve had to look more closely, however, it turns out that Prager U is not a university—it’s run by a talk radio host. Its videos frequently contain misinformation, especially when the subject is climate change. The content is so bad that Google, which is often slow to react to misinformation on its platforms, has slapped fact checks on a number of Prager U videos.
Even without the Prager U branding, the host of this video would cause some concern. Mark Mills is associated with the Manhattan Institute, a free-market think tank with a long history of rejecting any government involvement in markets. This has left the group with a reflexive loathing of any attempts to address global warming.
Mills himself is not necessarily a reliable source on renewable power, as he’s been heavily involved in companies focused on nuclear power and fossil fuel extraction. Mills has also spoken at the climate meeting hosted by the notorious trolls at the Heartland Institute.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03/is-there-a-shift-from-disbelieving-climate-change-to-attacking-renewables/
ah, so you do the muckraking for the ad hominem attack, before you consider what the man has to say, on its own merit. Is that it Mr Dutcher?
those of us who were educated in the classical school – to think for ourself – take the opposite approach. For guys in your frame of mind, next step after that, is : consulting with the Central Party Line as it stands on a given day. So you are always comfortably aligned with how the herd feels, for now
Far be it from you, to even read the works of Professor Ed Berry, merely a professor of physics, re man-made global warming. That it’s dead wrong in the first instance
Far, far ! be it from you to peruse what Nils Axl Moerner had to say about purported ‘rise of sea level”. That it’s one of the greatest lies ever fobbed-off on boobus Americanus. What did he know, eh? He being merely one of the UN panel of the UN committee studying sea level. Not holding the politically-correct position, bien pensant / your position, then = say no more – he MUST be one of the tinfoilhatters
LMAO Gordy!! NOT going to read anything that comes from a nationally recognized tin foil hat conspiracy website. Try getting a grip on “Reality”, not Trumped Up Bullshit. I’ve already “Tried To” read some of the outlandish “Crap” you have posted on here before.
Gordy, I did check out your Herbert Spencer( Spencer not Spence) and I readily admit his theory on societal Darwinism fits you to a tee!! Also, you crack me up with your : ” educated to think for ourself ” statement, and then you commence to post statements that you did not think of for yourself, in other words, you just parrot “other People’s Ideas and Thoughts. I again state: Yuo must have done a LOT of drugs back in the day, because you are WAYYYYY OUT There!!
One other thing Gordy, You must have done a whole lot of drugs back in the day, as some of your posts are very ” Space Cadet” oriented!!
comes to mind what Herbert Spence said about guys like you, Mr Dutcher.
I’ve used it before, but it pertains even moreso, when you sneer at 2 of the most eminent authorities of all, to do with the Global warmist Hoax
there is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle, is : contempt prior to examination
One thing about it Gordy, you quoted a good one this time, as YOU fit the definition of Social Darwinism Quite Well!!
IATROGENIC ‘MEDICINE’ OF THE WORST ORDER
if ever there was a story that suited the original intent of the Complete Patient, this is it : below. Someone who starts where the Gulf War Syndrome left off, has work to be done, of utmost importance. Yet what’s coming across on this forum? David Gumpert is a flak-catcher for Big Pharma
see what Edward Dowd has to say in his interview by Naomi Wolf. Pfizer’s own documentation proves FRAUD. And that the FDA was party to that FRAUD. So there goes immunity from liability. This bodes to implode prices of pharma. stock prices, as explained in the movie The Big Short
………………..
The European (EEA and non-EEA countries) database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, verified by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and they are now reporting 41,834 fatalities, and 3,900,241 injuries following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots.
A U.S. Attorney reports that there has been a 1100% increase in military deaths following COVID vaccines, stating, “This is Genocide.”
Daniel Horowitz reports at The Blaze: “Both political parties are salivating to draw our military into the Russia-Ukraine war, but neither of them seems to care about what our own leaders have done to these soldiers. It is now abundantly clear from numerous data points that the shots have caused unimaginable injury among the general population.
Military doctors have come forward to show the enormity of this damage in the military, yet the military has chosen to cover it up and tamper with their own health surveillance data in order to conceal the magnitude of the injury.
Meanwhile, new data presented in a Florida federal court on behalf of a Navy SEAL demonstrates that, at a minimum, more people died from the shot than from COVID.”
David, I also want to Thank You for this post , trying times we live in, especially given all the tin foil hat types skulking in the basements of truthful information!!
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60653946
https://covid-101.org/science/how-many-people-have-died-from-the-vaccine-in-the-u-s/
How many people have died after getting a vaccine?
Between December 2020 and July 19th, 2021, VAERS received 6,207 reports of death (0.0018% of doses) among people who got a vaccine, but this does not mean the vaccine caused these deaths. Doctors and safety monitors carefully review the details of each case to see if it might be linked to the vaccine. There are three deaths that appear to be linked to blood clots that occurred after people got the J&J vaccine