Watching President Trump, I’m often struck with buyer’s remorse. The man is such an amateur. And it’s not just his inability to wield the levers of power to get sh*t done.
One of my friends deep inside the Trump administration tells me that the former reality TV star is keeping the swamp topped-up with cronies, lackies and, again and most importantly, amateurs.
And then President Trump goes and does something so wonderful — other than not being Hillary Clinton — that my heart swells with joy. Getting Neil Gorsuch onto the Supreme Court was one such triumph. His decision to pull out of the Paris climate change accord is another.
Set aside any consideration of whether or not global warming is man-made, and whether or not the Paris accord would save cities, polar bears or enrich Elon Musk and his clean energy compadres. The amazing awesomeness is that President Trump made the liberal left and the mainstream media’s heads EXPLODE.
If the usual statist suspects are this apoplectic about anything, I’m a happy camper. It tells me that whatever caused the reaction had to be the right thing to do. Allowing the U.S. to burn the planet? Surrendering our international leadership? Sure, whatever you say. Happy happy! Joy joy!
More than that, the idea that the U.S. President told the rest of the world (excluding Syria and Nicaragua, of course) to FOAD makes me proud to be American. In no uncertain terms, withdrawing from the Paris climate change accord told the world (and U.S. citizens) WE ARE NOT LIKE YOU.
I consider the move nothing less than the re-birth of American exceptionalism. And here’s where it connects to guns . . .
With certain notable exceptions (e.g., Poland) the rest of the world considers gun control normal, natural and desirable. Even after repeated terrorist attacks and rampant street crime, England and France are moving not one inch towards recognizing their citizens’ natural right to armed self-defense. Not Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Indonesia…no one.
Well why would they? They’re not America! A country whose founding document protects the right to keep and bear arms from government infringement. Why? Because we’re not Europe. Or China, Asia, South America, the Middle East or anywhere else. We’re different. We’re better. We’re a free people. And free people keep and bear arms.
President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change accord signals his desire and ability to tell “perceived wisdom” to take a hike. So while gun rights restoration languishes on the political back burner — even something as simple and, well, common sense as the Hearing Protection Act — at least we know President Trump is ready, willing and able to stand up to the left and its most cherished “ideals.”
And that means President Trump might work to move on something like national reciprocity. Or eliminating the NFA. Something, anything in the gun rights arena.
I’m not saying he will. Gun rights restoration is hardly a high administration priority compared to health care, tax reform and yes, building the wall. Most of President Trump’s promises to gun rights advocates (e.g., the elimination of the Gun Free School Zones Act) would require an act of Congress, a task that makes herding cats seem easy in comparison.
But now, at least I know President Trump could do something on firearms freedom. Which is a lot more than I believed before the Paris pull-out. Time will tell, but I now have hope for change.
As for watching the world burn, of course we can’t do that. But we can’t join the rest of world burning its civil rights and economic opportunities on the altar of political correctness. I think that possibility just got a little further away.
Nothing’s gettin done. As long as we have a two party system we’ll have many crypto democrat Republicans in Congress. No reciprocity, no NFA repeals, nada. In fact, I think Trump is a hindrance because he’s going to cause more gridlock and slow the bleeding. At least maybe Hitlery would have brought us closer to civil war or secession. This federal Leviathan cannot be domesticated, it can only collapse or be killed, and we’re far too comfortable to do the latter.
Yeah, I wpuldn’t say civil war or seccession, but people think the SCOTUS is santa claus. Having it unbalanced would have lifted the illusion for many. Now the status quo is stuck in place, give or take reciprocity and a state mag ban or two.
You can’t be paying attention. While a lot is getting done, you are correct that a lot more that should be getting done is NOT getting done. But that is not on Trump. That is on the Establishment, especially the GOP Establishment. His own party, and large part of it and all of the “leadership,” wants nothing better than for him to fail. So they roadblock everything.
And NO NO NO we would not be better off with Hillary. We’ be closer to a revolution, only because we’d be worse off by far. And be careful what you wish for. I’d have to bet on the government winning any violent revolution, and at best we’d wind up with less freedom and a weaker nation, which might just tempt our international enemies . . ..
+1 We’re better off without Hillary…. -1 we (the people) would lose a revolution to the government…. Havoc and murder are so easy these days, that all you would need is a little instability (fry the electrical/communication networks, food distribution, water, waste management, sewage, etc), shrug off those binds of civility, and set the house on fire. The government would have no legitimacy with the people. Its guarantees would be meaningless. The government could never “win”, but I do agree that we all would lose. It would be America collectively blowing our brains out.
“I’ll take my chances.”
— Americans
“Nothing’s gettin done. As long as we have a two party system we’ll have many crypto democrat Republicans in Congress. No reciprocity, no NFA repeals, nada…”
Whine, whine, snivel, snivel.
The HPA is on-deck in the House in June, last I heard.
“At least maybe Hitlery would have brought us closer to civil war or secession.”
Oh, give me a fuckin’ break. Why don’t you just un-buckle your seatbelt next time out driving and point your vehicle in oncoming traffic, then? Cripes.
We’re pissing of Liberals in *mass quantities*. This is FUN!
Whoa! Cool your jets there Geoff.
Leave the incoming traffic out of it. A bridge abutment will do just fine.
You’re right, that could be a conservative in the car they hit, that was quite un-cool of me.
A bridge abutment will be just fine.
EDIT – I just heard, *major* terror attack in London, London Bridge, Borough Market and Vauxhall, many injured, fatalities feared…
Geoff, car ramming and multiple stabbings.
In my opinion, one of the beauties of the American governmental system is that NOTHING GETS DONE! Sure, it kinda sucks to watch sometimes, but more often than not I’m grateful.
“In my opinion, one of the beauties of the American governmental system is that NOTHING GETS DONE!”
It was deliberately DESIGNED THAT WAY.
And thank goodness. The founders realized laws crafted in haste are often BAD laws loaded with un-intended consequences.
We really need civics taught as required in schools. I fear the Left will fight it tooth and nail…
That is a feature, not a bug. The Founding Fathers distrusted any sort of centralized power, so created three factions that were supposed to be, if not be constantly at odds, at least scrutinizing each other very carefully.
The American political system is supposed to teeter one way and then the other. Things go wrong when it remains too long at any one extreme. Obama’s eight years were too long. Trump is more centrist than right wing, but his general irritation with the progressives who are constantly screeching about nothing may cause him to swing far out just to spite them.
Highlights of the Paris climate Leftist wet dream…..
1) Many trillions of Western dollars funneled to corrupt 3rd world countries
1A) Leftist objective….decrease power of “white provledge” counties…aka USA
2) Loss of millions of jobs in US energy sectors
2A)Leftist objective…. see 1A
3)Paris climate impact….Leftist optimistic models= avoid rise of world temperatures by….wait for it… 0.9C
3A) MIT estimate=0.2c
Other thoughts…
1) For peak agricultural output of world required a global temp rise of approximately 2.5 degrees.
2)Imagine all of the possible technological advances that could materialize over the next 80 years to scrub the temperature if indeed a raised temperature is needed.
I’m not part of the swamp. I know what Hillary would have gotten done and we would all be scrambling. I’m really sick of the whining 5 months into this presidency. I suppose not giving money to foreign countries, along with jobs is not much. The new supreme court justice was not a bad move. Castro Land is not our friend, does not bother me I never trusted them anyway. There is a pasture in Afghanistan that used to be an ISIS stronghold, then one day everything went boom. China has been given ultimatums and Iran is living on borrowed time. North Korea has committed suicide they have just not died yet, Crooked Cop Comey needs a job. Me I’m just home cleaning my guns and laughing waiting for the word on ACA going out the window. Democrats are up nights, and Rhinos are hoping he does not get around to them. About another 7.5 years and things will come around.
What choice did we have? I’ve always said I would have preferred another. But Trump was it. Or hillary.
And I still don’t believe that people fully realize what happened in November. The fix was in. hillary was going to be our next president. Until she wasn’t. And the world is still in shock.
Trump is an amateur, to some extent. But that gives me a glimmer of hope.
This. RF you make it seem like being an armature in this field is trump’s biggest failing, while I viewed it as his biggest selling point (next to not being FHRC). He wasn’t part of the D.C. Cesspool. And while I remain hopeful of some form of NFA revision or some major reaffirmation of the right to keep and bear, I realistically have no expectations of them to be fulfilled. At best I expect things to remain the same. Out here in the people’s republic of Kalifornistan we aren’t winning any fight, regardless of what the NRA or the calguns foundation says. We’ve been riding a net negative for as long as I can remember, and having a new president that is 2A friendly will not change a dang thing (read 9th circus court).
Long story short: it’s nice to dream. But a thing least I don’t have to dream about what it would be like if Hillary was not my president.
…and the “armature in this field” is generating quite a current!
Shocking. 🙂
Oops ?
Autocorrect doesn’t like me.
“a new president that is 2A friendly will not change a dang thing (read 9th circus court).”
Don’t give up hope. The 4th Circuit was considered very conservative before Obama. I don’t think Trump is going to turn the 9th all the way around, but I do think he will make a good start.
I appreciate your optimism, truly, but the 9th is not my only problem. I’ve got the militant legislature and 2/3 of a state trying to take away my rights because of some pointless distaste for firearms. While the 9th is a pain, the state is voting as it pleases, burying myself and other gun owners with it.
If the 9th were not a problem, then the state legislature would be less of a problem. I’m sorry I don’t have a light at the end of the tunnel for you on the issue of the legislature out there. That’s a train halfway down the tunnel.
The population and national debt will continue to grow until we reach the critical point where the progressive handout system grinds to a stop — like Venezuela, what happens after will be very interesting.
We are at least heading for “austerity.”
Hmm.
Nothing says US based companies can’t act to reduce their carbon footprint – and several big ones have pledged to do just that. Fine, they’re not being forced.
This whole affair, however, highlights two things. First, that the last president did plenty of this and other runarounds around Congress. Second, that anything one president does by first, another can undo. Both good things to remember.
As for climate change… It’s always changing. But we have a larger long-term problem. We really, at the heart of things, only have three energy sources available to tap: solar, nuclear and gravitational. All fossil fuels are just stored excess solar. So, sooner or later we need to stop relying on them, because by using them we are implicitly drawing faster than the steady-state available supply. (Besides, we need them to make plastic.)
“We really, at the heart of things, only have three energy sources available to tap: solar, nuclear and gravitational.”
I think you are forgetting a couple of big ones, hydro and wind. Not to mention biofuels. My city gets over 93% of its electricity from hydro and wind.
http://www.seattle.gov/light/FuelMix/
And what drives that motion of wind and water?
Hydro: evaporated water (solar heating) falling as rain and running downhill (gravity) or sloshing back and forth (tides – gravity)
Wind: air masses moving due to temperature differentials (solar)
Wind and hydro are both driven by solar. Gravity may pull the water down and through a turbine but solar got it up above it in the first place.
Actually, there’s some evidence starting to appear that at least some subset of oil reserves isn’t “fossil” at all but is upwelling of heat-generated hydrocarbons from the mantle. In that case, those hydrocarbons are a stored version of gravitational energy, and while still theoretically finite, the amount of stored carbon in the mantle and lower crust is vast enough to be effectively unlimited.
I just recently heard about this too. Very interesting.
Four Facts about the Paris Accord and Greenhouse Gases :
China is exempt from the accord until 2030, or later if extended.
India is exempt from the accord until the West gives India 2.5 Trillion Dollars in aid.
Russia is allowed to INCREASE it’s greenhouse gas output to 1990 levels.
China, India and Russia account for more than 41% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
If reducing greenhouse gases on Earth is so vitally important, why are those three major polluters being given a free ride for 13 years or more ????
At this point, whatever Trump does… if the legacy media is against it, I’m for it by default.
So much weight put upon a non-binding courtesy pledge.
The whole thing is nothing more than a group hug of virtue signaling pansies who want to pat each other on the back and hand out awards to themselves.
This nonsense is nothing more substantial or real than using a flag filter on your profile pick. If you’re a man-made climate change zealot you should be insulted by anyone who pretends the Paris Accord is good for anything other than feelz.
This is a win for the believers and the deniers. The deniers can feel good about not participating and the believers can now push for something real if they truly believe at all.
I don’t believe it was quite that innocent. The US already transferred $1B to the slush fund, while no one else put in a nickel, and was committed to $100B per year, apparently forever (though I can’t find the duration), going to support dictators and socialists while they starve and murder their citizens and neighbors. All because one man decided it would make him look good, somehow, so took it on himself to sign on without asking anyone.
Exactly. Where does the POTUS get the power to promise foreign nations (economic competitors) vast amounts of taxpayer money, increase US taxpayer burdens, and lessen economic growth? There is no “promise” power in the Constitution. If Obama wanted this deal he should of sent it to the Senate as a treaty for ratification and requested the funds from the congress–as our laws read. But Obama knew this was a killer to the US economy and Obama supporters are convinced that our laws are meaningless when it comes to his promises to their climate change religion.
The pro gun progress isn’t as fast as I want, I’ll fully admit that. I hope SCOTUS finally starts making some pro gun decisions.
With that being said, the economic progress Trump has put forth is considerable. The Dow Jones is up, job growth is up, border security and military operational readiness are up, the national debt is decreasing, Black Lives Matter has no support from POTUS, real deportations are up, and the Paris agreement was economic disaster. Those regulations would have cost trillions and resulted in huge job losses. The US is already pretty good when it comes to clean energy, and had increased oil production under Trump.
The fact that all of these things are much better than the arrogant, excuse proliferating Hillary are readily apparent.
Is the national debt actually going down?
I doubt it. Usually ‘decreasing the deficit’ only means we are only spending twice as much as we bring in, instead of three or four times as much. Sometimes I wish I could run my business like that. Spend whatever I want no matter how much comes in, charge insane amounts to ‘rich’ customers, while ‘donating services to others as I please’. It’s crazy…
Yeah, the “cut” to medicare results in something like a 38% increase in spending over ten years.
Let’s see global energy consumption is about 567 Exajoules or a power demand of about 18 terawatts. The third world where most of the worlds rainforests are located account for 60% of that. So the Third World needs to replace 340 Exajoules or 10 Terawatts of energy with renewable energy, currently 90% of the third worlds energy is met with wood or biomass. Never the less, 10 terawatts of wind power that’s 10 million 1 Megawatt wind mills then take into consideration the Betz limit that the maximum energy performance of a turbine is about 59% running efficiency which it often never runs at that level of performance, the average wind turbine efficiency is 30-35% , that’s less than a third so you need three times as many turbines to make up the difference; that’s 30 MILLION turbines then you have to build even more turbines cause the wind distribution is not universal all over the world so you have to send electricity from one site to another when the wind is stagnant which may require twice as many turbines so that’s 60 MILLION turbines. Then you have to install them so that’s 60 million acres of forest that has to go since it takes a acre of treeless land (as tall trees interfere with the wind pattern splaying against the turbines). it takes about a ton of of neodymium and other rare earth metal per turbine so that’s 60 million tons of rare earth metal. China whom consolidates 90% of the global supply, only produces 100,000 tons a year so it would take 600 years to mine it all assuming that much even exists. That’s a lot of Strip mining, probably that needs to be done in the rainforest regions of the world. And that’s just the third world, never mind the industrialized worlds energy demands. Don’t get me started where all the copper wire is gonna come from or all the Lithium to store it. Given the environmentalist uproar over mining…..anything. Good luck world.
That would also drive every single flying critter on earth to extinction. We already slaughter over a million bats and nearly a million birds every year in this country just to get 2% of our electricity from wind. Imagine the avian carnage if we came anywhere near 100%.
Nice.
AIR, the sourcing to point-of-use ratio is about 2:1, so if your base number is consumption at point of use … double everything. (But what’s a factor of two among friends, really?)
It’s worse than that. If you want to make an “energy thinker’s” head explode, introduce the notion of “power quality”, a lovely, amorphous term used in that black art that rolls up the notion that electricity is way, way, more useful it if is “always on”, consistent, available when you want it in whatever amount you need. The problem with wind / water / solar is they have generally crappy “quality.”
For more fun, introduce “power quality” into the great electric car boondoggle. Leave aside the mere conservation law problem of “Where’s all that lovely recharging juice come from … hmmmmm?” It’s hard to beat the energy density of a liquid chemical fuel, especially one for combustion with an external oxidizer (that lovely air, that we don’t drag around in our cars.) Also ease of use, distribution, and frankly handling and inertness. Yes, you can have a fire or explosion with gasoline. How much does that happen? Contrast with *lots of other stuff* where you just plan for using it to go sideways from time to time.
Renewables have miserable power quality.
It’s actually easier than that. Anybody who talks about greenhouse out-gassing from landfills, compost, sewage treatment or the like in terms of how horrible that is, is showing their bias: people suck, and shouldn’t be permitted to do anything. Serious people talk about capturing that stuff — free fuel, portable solar from last year’s sunbeams, right there to grab and use.
And where are the environmental reports on how the disruption of the normal wind patterns would affect climate change?
Isn’t Chaos Theory something about a butterfly flapping its wings?
BTW, wind is the result of variations in sunlight hitting the Earth, so wind is also solar power.
“And where are the environmental reports on how the disruption of the normal wind patterns would affect climate change?
Isn’t Chaos Theory something about a butterfly flapping its wings?”
THIS!!!!!!!! I have been asking these very questions for years! All I ever get is an eye roll!
global energy consumption is about 567 Exajoules or a power demand of about 18 terawatts.
The problem with cocktail napkin math, is one often doesn’t start it early enough in the evening….
The world produced about 20,000 terrawatts last year. Perhaps you were thinking of petawatts? I’m not even going to bother with the rest of your “math”.
As to the rest, wind is a filler in areas with limited land and lots of wind. Otherwise, just put in a 500 megawatt solar plant. We’ve already got several..
The Nevada-Arizona area could *handily* produce most of the US power generation via solar-thermal with a big-ass thermos bottle of molten salt buried in the sand for 24-7 production.
It will roast a *lot* of avian critters. Thankfully, it won’t impact the bats, they sleep in the daylight hours.
Except there’s many with a vested interest in exporting dollars to primitives who should still be living in tents, so said can use those dollars (and their ‘religion’) to destabilize the planet.
Had we spent just a few tens of billions (or hundreds, who cares?) over the last coupla decades on solar, we could walk away from the ME, and defund most of our enemies. We’re currently number 4-ish in solar, we should have maintained our lead in tech and production by a wide margin.
16V,
As attractive as solar is, it doesn’t do much to help us with vehicular transportation. Sure, you could use solar panels to charge vehicle batteries during daylight. But where are the millions/billions of pounds of lead and/or lithium going to come from for the batteries? And what about trains and semi-tractor trailers … which are effectively too large for battery power to be practical?
uncommon-sense, Battery tech gets better every day, capacitor tech same thing. There are several promising new batteries – including one from the man who was involved in the lithium-ions we count on for most stuff today.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/does-new-glass-battery-accelerate-the-end-of-oil
All that said, the Tesla truck is beyond fantasy – the math doesn’t work at anything resembling acceptable ranges or loads – Musk thinks people aren’t smart enough to do the math, and to be far, the slimy South African has been right for the last $3B of burn. Cars, though? The near future (if we make it that long) is guaranteed to be electric and mainly self-driven cars. In less than 5 years, every manufacturer will offer at least one. In under 8, every car will have it. Around 10 years, your insurance rates will go up spectacularly if you choose to drive yourself. 15 or 20 years, driving yourself will likely be illegal in metros.
Solar storage? There’s a dozen simple kinetic ways to store energy in huge amounts from water pumping, to rolling a trains full of rocks up a hill. The myth that we can’t store it, is just that, a myth.
Trains are a different story – there’s a dozen ways to electrify the tracks and remove the diesel and it’s fuel. Though to be fair moving freight by train is the last place we need to focus – it’s really efficient.
16V,
As promising as new battery technologies may be, they still require countless tons of lithium or lead (which are nasty metals) that have to come from somewhere outside the United States.
As for solar storage at night, yes someone can pump water uphill all day like they do right now with excess capacity from nuclear reactors at night. The beauty of potential energy storage with water is that it is plentiful in most of the United States and has no negative health or environmental qualities (aside from flooding).
I would get much more excited about solar if photo-voltaic cells achieved 50% efficiency. THAT would be a game changer.
“. . . Around 10 years, your insurance rates will go up spectacularly if you choose to drive yourself. 15 or 20 years, driving yourself will likely be illegal in metros.”
At which point the state, using “sustainability” or some other enviro-fascist excuse as justification, will begin rationing personal travel by privately owned cars. First, you will be charged by the mile (costs to sharply increase when the state decides they should) and then total millage will be steadily reduced to a point where the ability to use a private owned vehicle other than a bicycle will be virtually impossible. This is this America you’ll still be able to own a car, of course, only you’ll never have the opportunity to use it.
u_s,
Well, be happy, the last record I heard was like 45% a coupla years ago, and IIRC, 20% is a pretty standard state-of-the-shelf. I don’t see that as too important for powerplant use – land where you build solar arrays is cheap, and the Chicom slave labor is making PVs cheap. Don’t get me wrong, 50%+ would make for all sortsa cool portables, roofs of all kinds would produce power, etc. Hell, PVs are now so cheap, they’ve cancelled several big thermal solar projects.
As to lithium supplies, that’s one of the many issues with Musk’s fantastic
consdreams. Tesla, the Enron of cars…The electric semi works well, provided the batteries are where the side-saddle diesel tanks are and can be ‘swapped’ at truck stops rapidly. For a very large part of the OTR semi fleet, that is *very* workable. That is what Musk is working on, IIRC. Truck stops will have fair-sized sub-stations feeding them to re-charge those batteries en-mass…
(BTW, what’s with the ’16VDon’t wo’?)
Geoff, If you do the math using 18650s, you’d either have a tiny load, or be battery swapping every 200-ish miles.
See Better Place for how that plays out – massive infrastructure investment, the final numbers kinda suck when you factor it all in.
Don’t get me wrong – day cabs, city delivery, the post office, etc – electric was very feasible even in the lead-acid days.
(I’ve fixed the gobbledygook handle. I think…)
You forgot the cost/pay off of all those windmills!
So far, not a single ONE has ever “paid for itself”!
And wont, even in its expected lifetime of something like 50 years!
At least, NOT until the price of electricity goes up something like 20 fold!
Now even at that, it would be possible to get there, if NOT for the simple fact that as the price of said electricity goes up, so does the price of new winfmills!
Its very likely that we have met a condrundrum, we cant get there from here!
This taking joy at pissing off the other side is squalid. That is what you’ll get instead of increased recognition of personal liberties because you’ll settle for it and the so-called two party system is happy to have us outraged and loathe to part with power.
Bravo! Well stated. It seems that just when the press seems ready to close in and deliver the coup de grâce they have been so desperately attempting to manufacture, Trump pulls off something absolutely… amazing. No wonder their heads are exploding.
Trump has a fundamental belief that multilateral Agreements are bad. And he is right. His willingness to abandon long-held multilateral agreements is certainly my favorite thing about the administration so far.
Now, if he really wanted to shake things up, get us out of a multilateral agreement, help Firearms companies and potential Firearms purchasers, he would work hard to get us out of ITAR.
ITAR is *killing* the independent gunsmiths, and that was probably the point of it by the Democrats. Same with killing kitchen-table FFLs.
The other is that banking nightmare Obama created for gun business where banks are dropping gunshop customers.
It is *hurting* folks I know in the gun-pawn biz…
Whether or not ‘global warming’ is man made is not the question we should be asking. The question should be is the planet better off or worse off with by increasing atmospheric CO2. The chattering heads who have never heard of terms like Milankovich cycles or Maunder Minimum want you to believe that we are destroying the planet when in reality we are saving the planet by burning fossil fuels. CO2 was at it’s lowest level since complex multi-cellular life appeared on earth before man came along. We are living in an ice age that started 2.58 million years ago and appears to be deepening (the last ice age, Karoo lasted 100 million years). The glaciers that retreated 12,000 years ago are coming back to kill us all (although probably not in our lifetime). And plants grow faster, require less water and produce more food when there is more CO2. We are creating an atmosphere that will support more life. I for one, believe this is a good thing.
Of course, the climate alarmists have a theory and power. The unwashed masses will mostly throw in with the apparent scientific majority in order to acquire presteige and good fortune by association with the most powerful wizards.
I’m with you, gov, on all of that. I will get some entertainment from the concept: “…coming back to kill us all (although probably not in our lifetime).” Thanks!
Seriously, when the glaciers return the human population will have to revert to a few hundred thousand. Last time they stopped around Des Moines but it would likely wipe out all agricultural production within 500 miles. What’s left would be choked off for rain as sea level drops 390 feet making the Gulf of Mexico much smaller and cooler. Presumably these climate changes in the past have occurred in as little as a couple decades, but even if it’s more gradual there’s still going to be a massive bloodletting. Billions of climate refugees will flood into warmer territories. War, famine, pestilence, etc. Without anthropogenic global warming the future of man is pretty bleak.
Yep. Just ignore the fact that the normal condition for millions of years have been mile thick ice sheets covering most of the continental land masses, and we can only hope and pray that man made global warming can actually make enough of a difference to stop the next return of those ice sheets, and the destruction of most of the industrial capacity of the most technologically developed countries in the world.
It’s not about CO2, it’s about the money that the plutocrats want to siphon off of the peons, the peons kids, and so on. Make a religion and then demand more money and more control over your life.
Bingo!
Ignoring any of the science, personal or political debates I support the push for renewable energy for no other reason than to shut off the billions flowing to the Middle East and the hordes of money it uses to support the spread of radical Islam.
Plus if we can generate more power than we need simply because sunlight hits us, we can sell it to the rest of the world and tell the to FOAD with confidence they still need us. Win win win
For our own and the rest of the worlds safety we need to choke radical Islam by choking off the regions only export. I doubt I will sleep comfortably until then
The USA has fossil fuel resources (oil and coal) to keep us growing for 200 or 300 years. All we need to do to shut off the flow of our money to the Middle East is to allow the oil companies to build the facilities ( drilling, pipelines, refineries) to supply our needs.
Also, no one has mentioned nuclear energy. Build the power plants and the transmission lines to fill our needs. Talk about making liberals heads explode.
I love that President Trump took us out of the Paris agreement. It doesn’t mean the world can’t clean things up, it just means the USA isn’t going to pay all the bills. But I want to comment on a few remarks I have seen made on here.
First off, Trump may not be a politician, but he is no way an amateur. He has vast experience in making deals, creating things, building things, financing things, running his businesses at a profit, which truth be told, is all the government is, just one big business. That is experience that almost none of the “experienced” politicians have, because they have lived their lives in the public sector and never had to survive in the private. Much like college professors, they actually have no idea what the real world is like. “Oh but Eric, he has declared bankruptcy!!!” Yep, you know what that means? It means he realized when it was time to cut his losses rather than keep throwing good money after bad, like most of our politicians would do.
Second, there is nothing at all wrong with the 2 party system. The problem is that the people keep electing the same scumbags that makes promises that they never keep, who’s whole goal in life is to keep getting elected.
‘Ohhh woe is us, our republican senator keeps making deals with the libtards, he has done it every time we elected him/her”. ELECT SOMEONE ELSE! If the new person doesn’t do what you want then ELECT SOMEONE ELSE!
Trump wasn’t my first pick either, but he is who we got and it’s better than Hillary. The Electoral College saved our ass this election. In less than 2 years we have another election. If your Congressman or Senator isn’t living up you your expectations, the time is now! Start looking at other options, get behind someone you believe in, start getting the word out, get involved in the campaign. The fight is going to get tougher, the libs are pulling out all the stops.
Great post Eric!
Now, as someone else said, nothing at all wrong with a two party system.
Our problem is that one of our “normal” parties decided to “morph” a bit a while back.
The Democrat Party actually ceased to exist when their “leaders” decided to hi-jack the political platform of the CPUSA!
The CPUSA, no longer even needs to field ANY canididates of its own since then.
They are now, one and the same! And the CPUSA, just tells their own members to “VOTE DEMOCRAT”!
(keep that in mind when you go vote!)
The only REAL democrats left are those too old to think well, mostly dementia patients, who dont even realize just who they are “riding along with today!
I call them, “Commiecrats”!
Fits well, plus shows their origin, and describes them much better than “liberals, progressives or even democrats”!
Exactly, Eric. The republican congress is filled with RINOs who’s loyalties are with the big-business elites who fund their campaigns. So far, they’ve steadily resisted enacting any Trump originated laws that are in conflict with the business-donor class establishment’s political agendas. At some point they’re going to have to start worrying about just who is going to vote for them in the next election? If they are known for opposing Trumps agenda, the newly created insurgent constituency that supported Trump and remains loyal to him, despite the media’s and democrat party’s best efforts, can’t be counted on to vote for RINO politicians who are so obviously working against their interests. If these guys don’s “get their minds right”, I suspect a lot of them are going to have formidable primary challengers.
“he’s an amatuer”.
Yeah, that’s actually how the system was designed to work. Feature, not flaw.
Our first presidents were all “amatuers” who put aside significant business interests for a time to serve the country. You know, back when people didn’t look at politics as a lifetime career where you interned on school boards, got an entry level job as a city rep, promoted to state, promoted to federal, and eventually be considered for promotion to President.
Your first step in getting your head on straight is to not get alerts from fisting Vox on your lock screen.
Trump is contending with the most intensive assault ever mounted on an incoming President. The assault has been expanded to encompass his family, friends, appointees, and supporters. Not surprisingly, he has circled the wagons and is perhaps too devoted to those sharing his fate. But he is gradually delivering for gun owners, if not at the pace we hoped for.
Probably any President who genuinely shares our views on firearms would receive the same despicable treatment today. Would any of the pro gun alternatives from 2016 better handle the abuse Trump is now enduring and still deliver the goods?
The usual practice in Washington to defang an assault is to throw some of your allies overboard. Trump doesn’t seem to be selling out gun owners, a remarkable change from past Republican Presidents.
When I first voted for Trump I was worried. I voted for him because I knew Hillary’s stance on gun control, who she would appoint to SCOTUS, and her globalist agenda with more wars in the Middle East. I also thought Trump would do more for the middle class instead of just the poor.
Now that Trump is in office I’m glad I voted for him. The stock market where a majority of my retirement and livelihood comes from is fantastic. I couldn’t be happier. And to think I was worried about the market selling off with the uncertainty of a Trump administration.
The president only has so much power and has to deal with an entrenched bureaucracy. He’s doing the best he can with what he has and so far I would vote for him again in a heartbeat.
Read and keep up with the Zerohedge.
There are very valid reasons to be concerned there could be an *ugly* correction in the stock market, based on what has happened in the past…
I only occasionally run into Z-H articles, but we’re exactly where we were in 2008, or worse. If you can fog glass, you get a new car loan. P/Es are at insane multiples, especially for companies that produce nothing, or even a profit. Unemployment is still high, underemployment is worse, real incomes haven’t gotten better for the middle class. and in constant dollars – the average worker makes about $1.50 an hour more than the did 50 years ago. Derivatives have been renamed and are back, on the bright side CDSs are only about $10T(!).
The QE of the last 8 years, $4T+ shuffling of fantasy money that started with Bush/bama, is going to come crashing down again, as it always does. This one will likely be worse than 2008, and we’ll be lucky if we can “monetary policy” (print) our way out. The race to the bottom is well underway.
If it’s any consolation, China and Europe are staring down the same bomb…
You’re right, it’s a cluster-eff of fiat currencies of the 9th magnitude.
I’d just offer that chicoms are far more accustomed to living with almost nothing, so they will ultimately fare better.
The president has little impact on the stock market. The manipulations of the federal reserve are about to come to their inevitable and unpleasant terminus.
…certain notable exceptions (e.g., Poland) — thank you for the honorable mention, Sir!
Poles – or Polishmen – are proud and free people, who established the first truly openminded, powerful, contemporary Republic on 1 million square kilometers on European soil, in the midst of Europe, right between Germany and Russia. It took 700 years and three superpowers to take the Polish Commonwealth down.
For 127 years it ceased to be.
Now, since Poland was resurrected in 1918, we are constantly struggling to decissively rebuilt the first Commonwealth of Poland to the former strength and glory, as home to the brave and land of the free. This goal will be achieved only when every Pole is again properly armed and masterfully trained in use of arms for home defense.
I met a genuine Polishman here in Maryland and was impressed with his understanding of liberty. I would much rather have people like him as neighbors compared to the leftists we have here.
Pretty happy with the Trumpster so far. I believe GOD HIMSELF put him in-Cyrus as it were.America needed a non-pol. America(and the world) has 2 maybe 3 extra years before the apocalypse. So what did you think of In Our Hands:The Battle for Jerusalem RF?
While I did vote for the man I’ve not been super impressed with several things he’s done so far. But the Paris Climate Accords where nothing more than an attempt to put a restrictor plate on the US economy to let the 3rd and 2nd world nations a chance to ‘compete’. Ironic, given those nations don’t even try to filter their waste products from their industry. But as always it’s the obsessions on CO2 production, which just happens to be an easy to tax.
But that short rant aside this action actually gives me a great deal of hope, given in this action we see that President Trump is willing to stick his thumb in the eye of international community in terms of UN mandates that are against the will of people. And if he’s willing to do that over something like the climate I’m confident that he will probably do the same thing with any UN mandated gun control.
” . . .But the Paris Climate Accords where nothing more than an attempt to put a restrictor plate on the US economy to let the 3rd and 2nd world nations a chance to ‘compete’.”
Actually, they were the first steps toward a long-cherished environmentalist-globalist plan to “de-industrialize America and “rationalize” our GNP to a more “sustainable” level. The goal is for all world economies to become roughly equivalent with GNP’s set at some predetermined level and not allowed to advance or compete with one another.
Honestly, congressional deadlock is NOT a bad thing.
It’s a feature not a bug.
Here you are!
A very short history of Poland:
https://youtu.be/DfjKPPQL37I?t=3m13s
Many thanks again.
Lack of similar b1t<h on the previous HUGE POS MF diesn't waive your right to complain but does call into question your judgment.
"Amateur”; i guess is the opposie of professional cack-sackers like the rest of our a-hole neighbors who needed a job in D.C.
We dont send reps to D.C. to govern US we sendthem to govern government and to protect us from the POS MF's that you sent, snd at that TRUMP IS STELLAR.
FTW
With a choice of Hillary or Trump how did you think it would turn out?
The amateur doing far less damage than Hillary would have.
Neither party represents me.
Shit like this is why Trump is President.
Gleefully cheering an idiotic move by a buffoon solely because it “pisses off the libs” is about as stupid as it gets.
Grow the fuck up.
The enemy of my enemies is my friend.
Swuff ain’t from here. And he suffers from POS(D).
I laughed quietly when he pulled us out of the Paris Accord. I had to suppress my laughter, because my wife, my liberal infested job, my city (Portland metro area, yeah I know) buys into the anthropological climate change hypothesis. I don’t blame them. In my youthful naïveté I bought the idea too at one point. We simply can not submit to the demands that restrict personal freedom. Not everybody can afford a Tesla. If these global leaders call for something that constricts self-reliance/sufficiency, you have to wonder what their motives are. Bloomberg after our gun rights, Leonardo after our cars while he rides around in a private Lear jet like Obama. I have visited countries where the government has ordinary citizen’s balls in a vice grip. One country in Europe that I can recall, was blatantly more hospitable to certain cultures that have no other reason to immigrate than to subvert the host’s way of life. The region where I live is a utopia for this mindset that if everybody eats kale and drinks kombucha while their little boys can compete against girls in all girl sports, then the world will be peaceful and radicals will leave everybody alone and just peacefully assimilate. Because as the popular press will have you believe, terrorism and gun violence is caused by one thing- conservative gun toting drivers. Not really all that enamoured with Trump, but I’m really glad it wasn’t the alternative. -Keep ’em clean, keep ’em loaded.
I laughed quietly when he pulled us out of the Paris Accord. I had to suppress my laughter, because my liberal infested job, my city (Portland metro area, yeah I know) buys into the anthropological climate change hypothesis. I don’t blame them. In my youthful naïveté I bought the idea too at one point. We simply can not submit to the demands that restrict personal freedom. Not everybody can afford a Tesla. If these global leaders call for something that constricts self-reliance/sufficiency, you have to wonder what their motives are. Bloomberg after our gun rights, Leonardo after our cars while he rides around in a private Lear jet like Obama. I have visited countries where the government has ordinary citizen’s balls in a vice grip. One country in Europe that I can recall, was blatantly more hospitable to certain cultures that have no other reason to immigrate than to subvert the host’s way of life. The region where I live is a utopia for this mindset that if everybody eats kale and drinks kombucha while their little boys can compete against girls in all girl sports, then the world will be peaceful and radicals will leave everybody alone and just peacefully assimilate. Because as the popular press will have you believe, terrorism and gun violence is caused by one thing- conservative gun toting drivers. Not really all that enamoured with Trump, but I’m really glad it wasn’t the alternative. -Keep ’em clean, keep ’em loaded.
It’s the sheer variety and nuance of political views on this site that keep me coming back to the comments sections.
I feel about “renewable/green” energy the same way I feel about smart guns. I’m not averse to them developing the technology, but I’m opposed to mandates and subsidies. If they really are that good, they’ll survive in the free market.
Like a lot of others, Trump wasn’t my first choice at the outset of the 2016 campaign, but I voted for him enthusiastically, and I’m thrilled with the job he’s doing. I’ve also come to believe that he was the only candidate who could have beaten Clinton, and I’m sure glad he did.
While I wish our firearms rights would be moving along a bit faster, I’m well aware that most of what we all want, CC reciprocity, suppressors, SBR/SBS’s, NFA reform, etc., can only be accomplished by Congressional action. Where Obama would veto anything that represented a positive for Second Amendment rights, I believe President Trump will sign them, if they make it to his desk.
Anthony Kennedy’s retirement can’t come soon enough for me, nor can RBG’s demise. Hopefully, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagen will take the same limo to her funeral, and it will drive off a cliff….
1,100 active volcanos around the globe @ any one time.
The first 5 minutes of which (and every 5 min thereafter) on average release 200x all of the heat, CO2, CO, heavy metals into the atmosphere as all of mankinds ‘existence’. There’s a volcano in Indonesia right now and daily spewing 1000’s of tons of Sulfur compounds and gasses. If you think all that sh_t’s in “perfect balance” except for “man”, you’re an FING IDIOT.
As I am part of the rest of the world, it somehow doesn’t make me happy, that the president of the worlds most influential country tells me to FOAD.
Sorry for your discomfort, dude, not. The leader of any nation should put the needs of his people before the needs of any other people.
If your leadership is putting you and your fellows second to other populations in other countries then it’s past time for you and your fellows to be in the streets with pitchforks and torches.
I can’t argue that “the leader of any nation should put the needs of his people before the needs of any other people”. (I assume you did not mean that if for example the leader of germans decides to get more lebensraum for themself…)
And it’s not necessarily bad, that the US and it president are telling their allies to be more independent, that those allies should try to stand on their own feet, and not rely always on the US.That could be good for all of us. We could get stronger, and at the same time America could have stronger allies than before (and get rid of the leeches).
My problem is, that something like this can go wrong in so many ways,
Yup, Trump is an amateur. Not a professional like Obama, Bush, Clinton and Bush.
Still waiting to be able to carry on Army Corps of Engineers property. That shouldn’t be too hard to get done, should it?
The US never ratified the Kyoto protocol from the mid-90’s, but we are the only country that actually met the reduced emissions goals. We did it because fracking made natural gas so cheap that we could close old coal plants. And it happened in spite of the federal governments direct opposition. The free market cannot be beat.
I emphatically believe without equivocation that the Global Warming / Climate Change is a Fraud heaped on our heads in an attempt to gain a more centralized power into a one world government, first observed by the
creation of the United Nations.
Just as the States saw their powers seeping away first slowly then violently during the American Civl war and then
more and more during the Progressive Era.
This Global Warming / Climate Change is part of the plan to go on a higher scale.
That said,
I think, Trump also know this is all a fraud as well.
The Global warming deal has been debated and debated till everyone is sick of it.
The Climate Change Fearmongers starting with Al Gore said,
“that the issue is settled”. The Fearmongers are not open to debate.
Then Science is not open to debate, it is no longer science but religion.
Trump is a genius.
The Fearmongers did not want to debate, so he just sidestepped the issue
and couched his rejection of the Paris conference based on Economics and American Jobs.
He put it in the terms that if you were For legislation and Green Taxes to stop Climate Change or Reduce Global Warming then you were against American Jobs.
A very unpopular position for a Senator to be in, if his State is hurting for jobs.
Good job, President Trump.
Consider our experience during the Obama administration: When the press had no animus against the POTUS other than lick Obama’s shoes, any time Obama wanted the press to gin up controversy, he tossed out a gun control squirrel, and off they went – usually for nine to 10 days, ie, one full “news cycle.”
Now, the press would love to use gun control to attack Trump – but Trump generates so many squirrels that the press chases every week, just about any gun control story couldn’t exist in the press for more than two days before some new squirrel comes along and makes the press veer off in some other direction. Trump could do something as simple as have three scoops of ice cream and short-circuit the usual press hysteria on a gun story; he’s that good.
The press is our second biggest enemy here. Never take your eyes off the big enemies here – the press first, then the DNC. The DNC’s gun control agenda is half driven by pandering to their PR flunkies in the press.
” …but Trump generates so many squirrels that the press chases every week,…”
And he did it during the election! Sometimes, when the press was starting to get close on something that could hurt him, Trump *himself* did-said something outrageous (tossed his own squirrel) and off they ran with it!
He devours *massive* amounts of mass news, and they mock him for it, while not realizing he uses it against *them*!
He knows what he’s doing. Author Peggy Noonan (wrote Reagan’s Challenger and the Normandy “These are the boys of Fon du Hoc” speeches) gave the media a warning – that Trump wasn’t as stupid as they thought he was, and he was a quick study.
I think she pegged him…
Yep. In their attempt to destroy him the msm gave him a free campaign, a winning campaign. I pointed it out a number of times here.
And the msm was just to stupid to realize it. He was never my first pick. But i enjoyed hell out of watching this election. It’s been a while since I could say that.
The Paris climate agreement was a voluntary non-binding agreement that nobody – nobody – was honoring anyways. Just a big bag of “good intentions.” Like a basket of fruit without the fruit.
Furthermore, a completely futile effort, given how amazingly cheap fossil fuels power the world. Until they have an alternate cheap clean energy source (which Nuclear, solar, and wind are not a part of), they shouldn’t even bother talking about reducing carbon footprints. No liberal is going to turn off their TV and their air-conditioner and sweat in order to conserve energy.
Trump is a forest fire, and most of what he will be burning to ashes is stuff I hate.
The bits I want to save are at least theoretically protect-able.
Are you sure that getting things done is the prime importance to someone who appears inclined to move as much regulatory & budgetary power as reasonable.
Some times I wonder if he gets a kick having Democrates suing the president (himself) to get rid of power they gave Obama.
Err.. transfered to the States.
June 3, 2017 at 19:43
“Are you sure that getting things done is the prime importance to someone who appears inclined to move as much regulatory & budgetary power as reasonable.
Some times I wonder if he gets a kick having Democrates suing the president (himself) to get rid of power they gave Obama.”. Misplaced post
Yeah, it’s to bad the ugly beast didn’t win the election. We’d all be well on our way to losing our rights to own a gun. This is the single stupidest piece I’ve ever seen you write. I had to check and make sure it wasn’t April fool’s day. Suck it up snow flake.
Sovereignty is what PRESIDENT TRUMP gave us back by pulling out of the worst money grab the world has ever known….The UN is the worst possible vehicle to promote a climate change agenda upon the USA and the rest of the world…kinda notice no one is kicking up much of a fuss about Syria and Nicaragua leaving the Paris /UN climate agenda …maybe it’s because their carbon footprint isn’t all that significant or maybe it’s because they don’t have deep pockets ….FOLLOW THE MONEY folks…..it’s basically that simple …it’s not rocket science….a carbon tax on our fossil fuel usage at the tune of 100 billion dollars a year is all they are asking…..I have a better idea…since the USA is one of the largest carbon polluters on earth why don’t we tax the the poorest countries on the planet and bring that money to the USA so we can outfit every household with solar, wind and geothermal power generating units to get everyone off the power grid and I reckon that would have a significant impact to reduce our carbon footprint so the rest of the world can relax and not have to worry about rising sea levels….just a thought.
I’m sorry. How is this related in any way at all to guns?
I met a blind desert Tortoise in Nevada the other day, hey what happened to your eyesight, his response was hey everything is cool I forgot my shades. I pulled them out of my shell and the sunglasses melted on my face and screwed up the eyeballs, but heck with that checkout this damn burn I got, hurts like a bitch! just saying nothing is perfect. Remember draining the swamp in Florida, well that waterway is now being reversed engineered.
“Buyer’s Remorse” implies you didn’t do everything you possibly could have to keep people from voting for him, Farago. You didn’t buy anything. You were dragged in a kicking, screaming temper tantrum even as the man soundly rounds on gun control debates by pointing out the hypocrisy of the UK knife and truck attacks. Several well documented temper tantrums, I might add. Amateur hacks shouldn’t run around calling other people amateur hacks, which is exactly what you are when it comes to politics and this president in particular. Citing you as a subject matter expert concerning his suitability is beyond laughable, to be honest.
Here’s a clue– Stop judging the man as if its his third year into the Presidency. It’s a mistake you and a lot of people are making. It’s also a mistake that the left is more than happy to let you make.
Your belief there is some sort of connection between the Paris Agreement and gun control is way off. There is no connection, and we are moving away from using good science for public policy decisions. When you cite the correct statistics for being pro-gun, I applaud you, that’s how you’ll win over people to be pro 2A. Then you turn around and rant about liberals and the left. I guess you have forgotten how many conservatives are anti-gun, all the while alienating pro-2a liberals such as myself. I used to enjoy your website and articles, but you screwed the pooch with this one.
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