Duke Pesta on Common Core – Six Years Later
On March 2, 2016 Dr. Duke Pesta spoke on the dangers of Common Core and discussed the new federal law “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). No doubt one of th...
Read full story at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/green-new-deal-preview-texas-town-environmentalism-chuck-devore It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Georgetown, Texas – population 75,000 – was to be ... View MoreRead full story at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/green-new-deal-preview-texas-town-environmentalism-chuck-devore It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Georgetown, Texas – population 75,000 – was to be the new poster child of the green movement.
Environmental interest in Georgetown’s big push to generate all of its electricity from wind and solar power was amplified by three factors: the town and its mayor were nominally Republican; Georgetown is in an oil- and natural gas-rich state; and that state is deep-red Texas.
Former Vice President Al Gore and other climate change luminaries feted Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross, and Ross was featured prominently at renewable energy conventions.
Last October, while the green dream was still in full flower, the city applied for a $1 million grant from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s nonprofit, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and won it.
Ostensibly to be used for energy storage innovation in batteries, the grant’s only real requirement was that the city serve as a public relations platform in Bloomberg’s push to convince Americas to abandon affordable fossil fuels and switch to more costly renewable energy.
Trouble started when politicians’ promise of cheaper renewable energy was mugged by reality.
Georgetown’s electric bills went up as more wind and solar power displaced cheaper natural gas in the power portfolio of the Georgetown’s municipal utility. Politicians scrambled for cover. And the bloom came off Georgetown’s renewable rose.
Now, largely embarrassed members of the City Council are trying to figure out how to unwind the renewable mess they and their predecessors voted themselves into.
With their municipal utility facing a $7 million shortfall – money that has to be made up by the city residents through higher electricity costs – the City Council voted 5-1 in July to instruct the staff to figure out how to wriggle out of the Bloomberg PR deal.
On Aug. 13 the Council voted 5-0 to officially kill the deal. The city is also raising property taxes.
The Council member who asked for the vote said he wasn’t opposed to renewable energy, but that in light of the city utility’s deficit, the city should focus on the basics, rather than “doing experiments.”
Indeed, there’s not a single city in the contiguous 48 states that runs solely on wind and solar power. The reason is simple: electricity gets to cities via a grid, and that grid draws its energy from a variety of sources – mostly natural gas.
Excluding large-scale dams, which fell out of favor with the environmental movement 50 years ago, renewables powered about 10 percent of the U.S. grid last year.
This means that cities like Georgetown, which have contracted to take power from wind and solar farms hundreds of miles away, don’t risk blackouts on windless nights, because reliable power is delivered from a grid getting power from fossil fuels.
As part of the Bloomberg agreement, Georgetown was going to hire a new bureaucrat to oversee the installation of solar panels on homes, while creating a battery storage farm to keep the grid energized when the sun wasn’t shining and the wind wasn’t blowing.
But such arrangements are hardly cutting edge. In fact, the physics and economics of battery storage are well known. And here’s where Georgetown’s 100 percent renewable push merely looks like expensive virtue signaling.
Moore’s Law governs the world of computing – the speed and capability of computers doubles every two years. But computers only manipulate 1s and 0s.
In contrast, we use energy to manipulate the physical world – to cool and heat homes, to move ourselves and commerce faster and farther than we could using our feet (or horses or bicycles), and to bring light to the darkness. Efficiency improvements in the natural world move more slowly and yield to diminishing returns as they reach physical limits.
Read full story at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/green-new-deal-preview-texas-town-environmentalism-chuck-devore
Mugged By Reality: Green Energy Turns Into Nightmare In Georgetown, Texas
Georgetown, Texas was pitched by Green New Deal ideologues on becoming a totally green city by running on 100% renewable energy. As energy prices quickly went through the roof, the city is in full ret
The Ugly Truth About Socialism (From Someone Who Escaped It) By Dr. Sarah Condor | August 17, 2018
What truly amazes me is how many apparently educated and seemingly smart (not the same thing) people a... View MoreThe Ugly Truth About Socialism (From Someone Who Escaped It) By Dr. Sarah Condor | August 17, 2018
What truly amazes me is how many apparently educated and seemingly smart (not the same thing) people are mesmerized by the vison of socialism, which they imagine is about “free stuff” for everybody: from healthcare to education and free lunch, to paid vacations, guaranteed pension, even a guaranteed wage.
They have never lived under socialism. They have never visited a socialist country. They have never read Hayek, Orwell, Mises, Arendt… In fact, all they know about socialism is from what they have heard their “liberal” college professors tell them about Denmark or Norway (which, by the way, have never been “socialist” countries in any vaguest sense of the word).
Unlike them, I lived under socialism for 18 years. I have written and spoke on the topic extensively, but those who should read what have said have failed to do so. Nevertheless, I have been pleasantly surprised to see and hear conservative commentators on Fox News and OANN describe socialism extremely well, so it is not entirely a matter of personal experience – you may prevent evil by learning about it vicariously.
Everyone knows what socialism means: it is a centralized system of government, where this abstract entity called the government, takes all your money and redistributes it as “it” deems fit. The government is called “the State” under socialism, and the State is identical with the Party. It is a one-Party system where the Party is the State – which is also why the much-touted Nordic countries are NOT “socialist” countries. They are multi-party parliamentary democracies: coalitions must be formed, and bills presented to the king for signature. However, the latter is only a formality.
On the other hand, in Socialism, there is usually a king-like figure. For example, in North Korea, it is the “Dear Leader” Kim, in Venezuela, it is the omnipotent Maduro, Cuba had Castro… We know the rest. Those leaders are elevated to the position of an Idol, the Idol – much more than a king – a God. There is only one God, the Leader of the Party. The entire ideology of socialism is based on a simple premise: you must identify with the Idol – hence, the identity politics. If you stand out, if you think for yourself, you will be cut down to your size and made to obey, toe the line.
That is the psychological impact – a complete and purposeful erosion of human self-respect, self-reliance, and dignity. It is not evil to steal, because everybody does it. It is not evil to break windows, smash cars, attack the police, because everybody does it. That is socialist thinking. Except, in real socialism, everybody obeys – the police is the right arm of the Party, with omnipotent powers. There is no Miranda or right against self-incrimination. There is no Bill of Rights at all. The only right you have is to keep your mouth shut and do as you are told, as the Party deems is the best.
Practically speaking, everything is “for free” – but, there is a catch: the government has the monopoly power over everything. Hence, there is no competition allowed, because you would be competing against the government, which means the Party, the State, the people – to compete means to be a capitalist, which means you are against the people!
The government deems that you need one type of bread, one type of butter, one type of everything… so long as the supplies last. If not, it shall be allotted to you based on your needs, which are determined by the government. If you have one child, you will be allowed one quart of milk a week. If you have “medical issues,” you may receive a doctor’s note for a piece of meat.
You think I am making it up? I experienced a milder version of this in socialist Czechoslovakia. We had 3 bananas for Christmas (1 kilo allotment) and bell peppers only in summer when we were allowed (on special permit) to travel to Hungary, sometimes Yugoslavia. Castro sometimes sent us oranges – and what a feast it was when the school lunch was served with one half of a small, thin-skinned, seed-riddled Cuban orange! I sometimes stole one more half or bartered it for a potato with a boy. We were not starving: there was plenty of sweet rice, potatoes, sometimes that tough frozen beef you could chew like a chewing gum. Once a week, on Friday, my mother bought five slices of ham – and I could only eat one provided that I put it on the nasty white rubber-like roll (one type of rolls the socialist bakeries made en masse for the people.
We lived in paradise compared to the full version of socialism I experienced when I travelled to Rumania in 1987: the Dear Leader Ceausescu was painted on billboards literally everywhere. The only thing they had to eat was beans and alcohol, and one type of Black Sea fish, which tasted like burnt rubber. Milk and bread was allotted only to families by tickets… Had Gorbachev and Reagan not been so wise, strong and perseverant, we would have had Rumania-style socialism in about, I guess, ten years.
Yes, that is socialism. It is a system of redistribution based on theft. Those on top, Party apparatchiks, they are omnipotent – they can send you to the uranium mine or coal mine just for speaking (or writing) anything “uncomfortable.”
And, beware, everyone is listening – you do not know if you can trust your neighbor or speak out loud at home, because the neighbors are listening with an ear on the central heating pipe at all times – yes they are – and if you want to listen to a Free World radio, over the government jammers, you have to do it at night and very quietly. When my parents discussed Gorbachev and Reagan, they would turn up TV or radio so that no-one could hear anything… the walls were thin, the walls had ears. That is not paranoia, merely survival sense under socialism.
Let me return to these Party big-wigs. They are rich, because they steal most of the money before it is redistributed. They have Swiss bank accounts, several residences, prostitutes on call.. you name it. (A little known fact: many socialist “leaders” have suffered from Syphilis.) They also determine how much everyone is paid: there are “scales” for this, and everything is based on how long you have been doing work assigned to you: a judge is paid the same as a shop assistant or a car wash hand, provided that they have been in the trade for the same time. The pay is minimal, sufficient to buy the monopolized necessities. Once a year, you will get a Christmas bonus and kiss the hand of your Party-member superior: “Thank You Comrade.”
Yes, everyone is a Comrade – just like everyone was a “citizen” in France during Robspierre’s days. Imagine your six-year-old saying “comrade” with every word: “comrade teacher…” Yes, indoctrination starts as soon as children can learn. And let us never forget: “To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is barbarity,” as Robspierre said – which is the motto of all socialists: “Punish the evil capitalist oppressors, punish those who speak against the Party because the Party is the State and the State is the People!” That too is emphasized to children ever since they can speak and listen.
I could tell you much more about socialism, but will you listen? Let me skim the surface here: there is one Party-approved TV and one radio station. They play brain-washing music and censored news. There is no unemployment because everyone is forced to work. There is no social care or healthcare unless you are a valued, deserving Party member, or the doctor that you “pay” with a dozen secretly home-grown eggs or one of your precious chickens you killed as a special gift writes you a recommendation. There is one type of antibiotic, one kind of treatment. It does not work for you? Too bad – unless you are a big shot Party member and can travel to a capitalist country to receive the treatment, or you obtain the medication you need on the black market. Of course, you need the “hard currency” which you must obtain from the “wechsel-men” on the black market (similar, I assume, to obtaining heroin today in our country).
There is no home-schooling. If you do not send your children to school, Comrade Principal will send the comrades from the local police station to your little kennel of an apartment (only big shot Party members have real houses) and literally pull your kids out and drag them to school. Yes, they will also do a thorough search and beware should they find “forbidden literature” or a capitalist catalogue! They will call the Secret Police on you, and you know what that means? Ah, you do not? Cross-interrogation with lamps shining in your eyes and two gestapo men yelling at you till you admit that you are a capitalist agent. I forgot the strip-search, and two other comrades pointing rifles at me. Yes, I was there, I lived through it. I was sixteen years old – and I have memories of comrades to last me several lifetimes.
You have no rights – it is your duty to obey. If you repeat this offense, your children will be taken away from you by social services and institutionalized. So may you be, perhaps also jailed. Yes, education is for free but you have one school, one college, and no choice in subjects or books. The books are mandated, and aids and resources scarce, so your children “inherit” the books from the grade above. They must carefully wrap them in newspapers and cover them because they must last to the grade after them, and after them. They can underline in pencil, but all must be erased and “as good as new” when the books are handed in at the end of the year.
Shall I go on? I could go on forever. I can still taste socialism, I can smell it a thousand miles away. It is the most destructive system Man has ever created. It is worse than the atomic bomb. The bomb kills you fast, evaporates you. Socialism eviscerates your soul. You remain a shell, a puppet, dependent on alcohol and cigarettes, grateful for the little alms the Party mercifully allots to you. You have no spirit in you, there is no meaning to your life.
Have you ever seen the gray photos of East Berlin? I lived in that for eighteen years! Those photos are not black-and-white. It is the grayness of socialism: people gray as ghosts, exhausted from the meaningless routine, from kowtowing and yes-Comrading, from the same “good news of hope of glittering tomorrows,” living in gray panel kennels, staring at gray news listening to the annual address of the Dear Leader whose eyelashes are coming off, heavy makeup nearly peeling off, till it comes off entirely when his Comrade Party Vice-Comrade kisses him twice on the cheek then the mouth… He has been your Idol for 20 years and will be until he dies when his son or Party Comrade Favorite takes over, telling you how Your People’s Socialist Republic has “completed another 5-year plan with 200% success, and these Comrades are going to receive The Order of Socialist Labor! Good Work, Comrades! Long Live Our Socialist Leader! Through War to Peace! Toward Glittering Tomorrows! Hope, Comrades, Hope! We Shall Defeat the Capitalist Pigs!”
No, you cannot say “Amen” because God and all religions have been banned. We used to say: “With Russia Forever After and Never Any Other Way!” You had to say that out loud so that the Comrade Teacher could hear you – otherwise, you might be “suspect…” And then we would sing the International. Oh, yes, beware of symbols, icons, music… they are all trojan horses, intended to manipulate your psyche. Please, don’t let me go on. Please, read, educate yourself, learn your past, learn from history, and never lose self-reliance, personal judgment, pride in your work – because, if socialism comes, those will be the first victims of your “persuasion.”
The Ugly Truth About Socialism (From Someone Who Escaped It) » Politichicks.com
What truly amazes me is how many apparently educated and seemingly smart (not the same thing) people are mesmerized by the vison of socialism, which they imagine is about “free stuff” for everybod
I Love The Smell of Napalm in the Morning ::: Apocalypse Now
Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore (Robert Duvall) delivers his famous line (shortened) in Apocalypse Now (1979). Such a great and quotable scene, tha...
I Love The Smell of Napalm in the Morning ::: Apocalypse Now
Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore (Robert Duvall) delivers his famous line (shortened) in Apocalypse Now (1979). Such a great and quotable scene, tha...
"The 'house of world order' will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great 'booming, buzzing confusion', but an end-run around national sovereignty, ... View More"The 'house of world order' will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great 'booming, buzzing confusion', but an end-run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault."
Richard Gardner, 1974, Trilateral Commission member
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