During his Thursday broadcast, the day following the most recent Democratic presidential debate, Rush Limbaugh described how he found himself \u201crolling on the floor\u201d in laughter.\u00a0 However, he was also sobered by the realization that the overflow crowd in Detroit\u2019s Fox Theater actually cheered the hairbrained schemes emanating from the debaters. \u00a0
When one candidate announced that humankind has just a short period of time, perhaps no more than ten years to save Planet Earth by eliminating fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) as fuels for power generation, none of his fellow debaters challenged that insanity.\u00a0 Essentially all agreed that a major element of that transition would involve the total elimination of coal from our energy mix.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a report by the U.S. Energy Information\nAdministration, U.S. power plants generated some 4.18 trillion kWh of\nelectricity during calendar year 2018. Of\nthat total, 63.5% was fueled by fossil fuels, with 27.4% of the total generated\nby coal-fired plants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the candidates failed to mention was that, since\nwind and solar power are not conducive to the propulsion of automobiles, buses,\ntrucks, and planes, a significant portion of our energy needs will still have\nto come from petroleum distillates and electricity\u2026 mostly electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In October\n2017, the Electric Vehicle Charge Association announced that the U.S. had just\nsurpassed 50,000 charging stations, and that there were nearly 700,000 electric\nvehicles (EVs) on the road. They estimated\nthat annual sales of electric cars would reach 1.2 million by 2025, at which\npoint there would be an estimated 7 million electric vehicles on the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, exactly\nwhere do Democrats anticipate all the electricity will come from that will be required\nto supply some 2-3 million charging stations\u2026 let alone, light, heat, and cool\nour homes, factories, and businesses? \nAnd will the American people, instant gratification junkies that we are,\nbe patient enough to spend from 20-40 minutes charging up our EV batteries when\nit took less than five minutes to fill our tanks with gasoline? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was recently\nannounced that Volkswagen, as part of its punishment for cheating on diesel emissions\ntests, will spend $2 billion over the next ten years developing a nationwide\nweb of fast chargers compatible with all brands of EVs. The program is called Electrify America and\nincludes an $800 million program designed to deploy public and private stations\nin high traffic areas, 35% of which will go to disadvantaged communities\u2026 where,\nof course, $50,000 Tesla EVs are the vehicles of choice.
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\nLiberals and Democrats tend to view the answers to these problems as mere\ntechnicalities. When asked where electricity comes from, most liberals and\nDemocrats would simply respond, \u201cFrom the outlet on the wall! Of course!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One candidate even went so far as to suggest that it\u2019s time those who live at sea level should start moving to higher ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is\nunderstandable that the Quileute Tribe<\/a> of western Washington, a tribe of\nformer whalers and seal hunters who occupy the westernmost zip code in the\ncontinental United States, would actively seek to move their oceanfront community\nto higher ground. The Quileute are not\nconcerned that the sea level will rise as a result of melting polar\nicecaps. However, living as they do in the\nearthquake-prone Ring of Fire region of North America, they have every right to\nfear a potential tsunami that would wipe out their entire community in a matter\nof minutes. But to suggest that it is practical\nto begin relocating 150-200 million people who occupy 95,440 miles of U.S.\ncoastline, because of the unconscionable fear of rising sea levels, is simply insane.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nthe subject turned to immigration problems on our southern border, it was time\nto turn on the phony compassion switch. \nTo hear the candidates and the CNN moderators describe the problem of\nhousing illegal border crossers, many of them families with small children, one\nwould have to believe that Donald Trump loaded Melania, Donald Jr., Eric, his\nwife Lara, and Jared and Ivanka Kushner onto Air Force One, flew to El Paso,\nand spent the day gleefully ripping children from the arms of their distraught\nmothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ncandidates, each in turn, fought back tears as they attempted to show that they\nwere far more devastated by the plight of the parents and the children than any\nof their fellow candidates. But what was\nmost telling about that performance was the fact that not one of the\ncandidates, and not one of the CNN moderators, found it necessary to acknowledge\nthat every day of the week, for the past 240 years, federal and state officials\nhave been sending mothers and fathers off to prison\u2026 some for the rest of their\nlives\u2026 and in no case have they ever incarcerated children along with their\nparents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nor\ndid they express an ounce of compassion for the children of U.S. military\npersonnel who are deployed to war zones in countries thousands of miles from\nhome. Military personnel who are\nassigned to posts in foreign lands not classified as war zones are permitted to\ntake spouses and children with them, but that is not true of deployments to\nactive war zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So,\nwhere is the compassion for the mothers and fathers who find themselves either\nincarcerated for long prison terms or deployed to war zones in foreign\nlands? Is there a lack of compassion among Democrats because\nthose who are convicted felons have lost their right to vote, and those who are\ndeployed military personnel most often vote for Republicans? Could it be as simple and as cynical as that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although\nDonald Trump was rarely mentioned by name during the debate, one of the\ndebaters did refer to the Russian collusion investigation as proof of Trump\u2019s duplicity. The candidate cited as proof the fact that\nsenior members of the Trump campaign, including Donald Trump, Jr.; his\nson-in-law, Jared Kushner; and campaign manager, Paul Manafort, met with a\nRussian attorney at the Trump Tower in New York on June 9, 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The key\nfigure in the Trump Tower meeting was a Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya,\nwho was recommended to the Trump campaign by a long-time Trump acquaintance, publicist Rob\nGoldstone<\/a>, as someone who possessed negative opposition research information on\nHillary Clinton that would be useful to the Trump campaign. In a clear and unambiguous email proffer to\nTrump Jr. on June 3, 2016, Goldstone wrote, \u201cEmin\n(Agalarov<\/a>, an Azerbaijani<\/a> singer who had performed at a Trump Miss Universe event in Moscow) just called\nand asked me to contact you with something very interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his\nfather, Aras, this morning and in their meeting \n offered to provide the Trump\ncampaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate\nHillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and\nsensitive information but is part of Russia and its government\u2019s support for\nMr. Trump \u2013 helped along by Aras and Emin.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In response, Trump Jr. replied, \u201cThanks Rob. I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I\njust speak to Emin first. Seems we have\nsome time, and if it\u2019s what you say, I love it\u2026 especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when\nI am back?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the kind of information that \u201ccomes\nover the transom\u201d in every political campaign from sources both foreign and\ndomestic, so it should not be surprising that Trump Jr., welcomed the input,\nsaying, \u201cI love it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n But what is most interesting about the Trump\nTower meeting with Ms. Veselnitskaya is not that she had absolutely no\ninformation and no documents dealing with Hillary Clinton and her pre-campaign\ndealings with Russia. What is most\ninteresting is the fact that Ms. Veselnitskaya attended a court hearing in New\nYork on June 8, 2016, the day before<\/em> the Trump Tower meeting, at which\nGlenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm employed\nby the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was\npresent. But, as if that were not\ncoincidence enough, both Mr. Simpson and Ms. Veselnitskaya have admitted to\nbeing seated at the same table at a dinner in Washington, DC on the evening of June\n10, 2016, the day after<\/em> the Trump Tower meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what are the chances that a Russian\nattorney, meeting with senior Trump campaign officials under false pretenses, would\nalso be in the same room with a man whose firm had been hired by the Clinton\ncampaign and the Democratic National Committee to dig up dirt on Donald Trump? And what are the chances that the two would\nfind themselves in the same room on both the day before<\/em> and the day after<\/em>\nthe Trump Tower meeting? People are fond\nof saying, \u201cIt\u2019s a small world.\u201d But is\nthe world really that<\/em> small? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Any reasonable person might suspect that the\nTrump Tower meeting was nothing more than a setup, designed only to create the\noptics for a future claim that Donald Trump had \u201ccolluded\u201d with Russians to win\nthe U.S. presidency. Yet, not one of the\nDemocratic debaters, not one of the CNN moderators, and, worse yet, not a\nsingle Republican leader, made mention of this inexplicable chain of events so\nthat the American people might understand what was happening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Until recent years, the field of presidential\nhopefuls in each party has been limited to perhaps two or three candidates\u2026 all\nmen and women of substance. In 2016,\nRepublicans produced a field of seventeen candidates\u2026 some a bit short on\nexperience, but all serious candidates. Watching\nthe twenty-three Democrat candidates vying for the 2020 presidential\nnomination, we are reminded of the tale of Snow White and the seven\ndwarfs. The difference being that the\nDemocrats have now produced more than twenty<\/em> political dwarfs… but\nwho will play the role of Snow White? \nElizabeth \u201cPocahontas\u201d Warren? \nWillie Brown mistress, Kamala Harris? \nMinnesota Ice Queen Amy Klobuchar? \nOr will \u201cPlugs\u201d Biden be the first Democrat to seek the presidency in\ndrag?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul\nR. Hollrah is a retired government relations executive and a two-time member of\nthe U.S. Electoral College. He currently\nlives and writes among the hills and lakes of northeast Oklahoma\u2019s Green\nCountry.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During his Thursday broadcast, the day following the most recent Democratic presidential debate, Rush Limbaugh described how he found himself \u201crolling on the floor\u201d in laughter.\u00a0 However, he was also sobered by the realization that the overflow crowd in Detroit\u2019s … Continue reading