With Thanksgiving 2021 in the rearview mirror, many of us return to reality after taking a few days away from the rancor, non-stop finger-pointing and backbiting of the partisan American political scene.
Even with the news respite, there likely was plenty of shouting and fisticuffs at the dinner table over differences of opinion on white meat vs. dark meat (turkey) and whether the stuffing was indicative of the original family recipe or came straight from a box. Republicans vs. Democrats was put on hiatus, at least for a time, while people ate too much, exercised too little and drank wine in quantities reminiscent of pre-COVID lockdowns (would this mean less or more than before?).
Having travelled across the country, I noticed little indication of lingering COVID fright, unless you’re talking about certain NFL teams’ fans and players getting up in arms over individuals exercising their constitutional right to refuse the vaccine, testing positive for the dreaded Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus and being suspended for one or two games to “quarantine” and save us all from an untimely death.
Forget the fact that so-called “breakthrough” cases of COVID are cropping up all around us and evidence is mounting that the vaccines aren’t nearly as effective -- or long lasting -- as having previously contracted and recovered from the ailment itself. It’s often said that groupthink trumps truth, and it’s hard to argue after a year and a half of paranoia over the mysterious east-Asian based virus.
Even in “woke” California, I saw signs of normalcy. Eating at a packed In n’ Out Burger the other day, I spotted very few people -- other than the poor restaurant staff who was required to wear them -- donning masks. Most folks were happily frolicking about with their cheeseburgers, fries and shakes, not the slightest bit concerned about being felled by the virus that’s kept Americans cowering in their homes for a long time.
This particular observation was made outside of Los Angeles County, where the governing authorities still demand masks be worn indoors. Sure, cross over the county line and the danger suddenly abates, right?
At any rate, there still were a host of things to fret over for many Americans, even in times of pleasantness. Fuel prices -- and the cost of practically everything else -- are quite high and the dollars we worked for aren’t going nearly as far. Some folks made the best of a bad situation by dishing out a little humor.
“Consumers angry with soaring gas prices are placing stickers on gas pumps with an image of President Biden saying ‘I did that!’ as he points to the total price paid by the driver. And stickers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, saying ‘I helped,’ are placed right next to Mr. Biden’s ‘I did that!’ decals.
“The stickers, available online in stacks of 100 to 300 and costing from $7 to $20, are reportedly springing up at gas pumps around the country and were seen by The Washington Times on pumps along I-95 and other interstates in several states between Washington, D.C., and Florida. Another sticker shows a shirtless, unkempt Hunter Biden, the president’s son, who is known to have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, smoking a cigarette and saying, ‘Gas prices higher than Hunter Biden.’…
“Mr. Biden has an uphill battle … to convince Americans that he is blameless. According to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll, over 77% of Americans say inflation is affecting their lives as they head into the holiday season — and 57% blame Mr. Biden.”
You gotta hand it to the creativity of Americans, don’t ya? Some enterprising entrepreneur somewhere dreamed up the idea of stickers that Biden skeptics can attach to gas pumps -- or anyplace prices are rising faster than colorful hot air balloons at a seasonal festival -- to silently express their displeasure at government policies and bureaucrats that affect lives and leave very little recourse to do anything about it.
President senile Joe has been seen lately (not during his Thanksgiving junket to Nantucket Island to celebrate the holiday at a liberal billionaire’s estate) squawking about releasing tens of millions of barrels from the nation’s oil reserves, supposedly with the objective of bringing the market price down and henceforth sparing the working man a few cents a gallon for a short period of time, all the while continuing to defend his absurd leftist “climate change” energy views that don’t reflect reality.
One can only imagine angry Biden voters furiously scraping the “I did that!” stickers off the pumps before the next frustrated customer sees them and hoots their agreement. The Hunter Biden sticker speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Senile Joe’s youngest boy has spent millions over his lifetime on illegalities ordinary consumers wouldn’t dream of buying. What a crock.
Senile Joe probably regrets a lot of things he’s done since taking office, but cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline and putting a damper on energy production must be near the top of his apology list. Not only did his executive order instantly kill tens of thousands of high-paying domestic jobs, it triggered a worldwide reaction that’s sent prices soaring with little hope of reversing the trend in the near term.
It’s gotten so bad that some in Biden’s party are calling for Joe to un-ring the Keystone bell. Last week, Senator Joe Manchin -- a.k.a., the only Democrat (except for former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard) who exhibits an iota of common sense -- suggested Biden would do well for himself by restoring the forward-thinking pipeline and therefore sending a signal to commodities buyers that the U.S.A. will compete for years to come. But here’s thinking Manchin’s plea won’t do anything to change Biden’s mind.
Biden dwells in a fantasy world detached from the reality every other American inhabits. Senile Joe lectures that cutting current and future production of fossil fuel based energy will save humans from the ill-effects of a warming planet, and that “renewable” sources will supplant the products that burn and expire. It’s a warm and fuzzy picture, isn’t it? Perhaps Democrats who object to stickers of Biden saying “I did that!” can start up their own business, printing out decals to be affixed to trees reading “I saved this!”
Or have Barack Obama erect a giant windmill on his Martha’s Vineyard estate that will generate enough power to run every Democrat’s hypocritical vacation cottage on the island.
Speaking of, while I was in California, I took the opportunity to once again tour the windmill farm located in the Coachella Valley. Known as one of the consistently breeziest places in the United States, there are hundreds if not thousands of large and giant windmills erected over dozens of square miles of land. Anyone who’s visited or traveled through the area instantly recognizes them. Some consider the three-armed structures beautiful and graceful. Others think they’re an eyesore.
The tour was informative and, as would be expected, made the case for “renewable” sources like solar and wind to spare Mother Earth from the ravages of fossil-fuel inspired temperature spikes. Several states have apparently expanded their repertoire of renewables to the point where solar and wind supply a significant percentage of their electric power. Iowa, of all places, gets over half of its electricity from these giant monsters and leads the nation in that category.
What the tour neglected to mention is that windmills are very expensive, aren’t 100 percent reliable and can be dangerous to wildfowl populations -- and that they only pay for themselves after a decade of “service”. If a windmill allegedly lasts 20 years, it takes over half of its useful life simply returning the initial investment. If the acreage the structure occupies was worth more, it would take even longer.
These Golden State windmills are placed on land that probably isn’t in high demand and the new owners were able to purchase at pretty low cost. That’s not the case in other areas. And there are major “Not-in-my-backyard” (NIMBY) issues with installing these nearly 400-foot-high machines in highly populated regions. The same goes for solar energy, which is dependent on consistent sunshine.
Why not invest the hundreds of billions into developing cleaner burning fossil fuel products? Or putting more emphasis on natural gas? Or nuclear power? Why focus solely on “renewable” energy that is so costly and not more efficient?
After experiencing California’s high gas prices and pondering the giant windmills, why can’t we have both low-cost fossil fuel energy and these “renewables” which will eventually be price competitive? Why must it be one or the other? Far too many combustion-powered engines exist and can arguably never be replaced -- train locomotives, ship motors, semi-trucks, combine harvesters, airplanes, rockets, etc.
Throw in the fact that much of the renewable technology and manufacturing originates in China, the communist country’s rare earth minerals needed for batteries and materials. This is a national security issue. Humorous stickers help highlight the problem, but there’s much more lurking just below the surface.
Like it or not, even in our post-Thanksgiving world, we’re stuck with senile president Joe Biden and his inflationary policies that hit working people and seniors the hardest. High gasoline prices are here to stay and the current administration isn’t likely to change course on any measures that would effectively address the hurting. It’s just another day in Democrat-land.
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