The Lesson Is? Republicans Can’t Win As Republicans. They Cloak Themselves As Democrats

It’s time I put this in perspective.

Here are the news feeds.

A Different Romney Wins The Debate.
The Family Intervenes and Pushes Stuart Stevens Out of Inner Circle
Titians of Finance to Fight for Raising Taxes

Coupled with the opinion polls, what is happening is very obvious.

Americans support Democratic middle class values, they abhor the wing nuts of the Republican Party.

The opinion polls tell it all. While Romney was campaigning to see who could be the most conservative, he did very poorly against the Democrats when polled. Americans far preferred “the imploders” at first, people more mainstream in appearance, like Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorium, .. that is until they became familiar with their values…

It is not coincidental, that the last two Republican presidential candidates were the ones with the most LIBERAL credentials. Because America accepts those credentials. What America rejects, is slash and burn Conservative policies, that require no personal freedoms to individual Americans, whether it is economic, vaginal, religious, or political. Everyone is expected to conform to a very narrow norm.

So we now have a Republican who did exactly what he said early during the primaries. He shook the Etch A Sketch and is now running as the Liberal Governor of Massachusetts.

“I will not give a tax break to the top 20%.
There will be no tax cut on the top one percent.
I will not get rid of Roe versus Wade. Abortion is here to stay.
I will not put religion into government. Government is Government. Religion is Religion.
I will not nuke Iran.
I will not cut one penny from government spending.
I will support the rapid growth of wind farms and solar energy.
I will not cut 716 million from Medicare, even if it IS in my economic plan.
I never proposed $5 Trillion in Tax cuts.
I will not cut spending. I will raise it by 2 Trillion Dollars.
Government is too small. I will grow government to make it better.
I will not stop women from getting abortions.
I will not stop the removal of God from government….
Homosexual marriage is not really that bad after all, as long as they LOVE each other and it’s not just sex.”

These were all in the debate. It was a different Romney speaking. Why? Because as a conservative he was losing. As a conservative he was out of touch with America. As a conservative HE WAS IN THE MINORITY WITH MINORITY VALUES.

As Conservatives long expected, Romney is a liberal. They know it. Really? How does anyone expect a Mormon to support Pat Robertson and the 700 Club? You do it out of expediency; not a genuine shared system of belief….

But the point of this is not about Romney. It is about Conservatism. Conservatism fails, and simply for that reason alone, it is not upheld by a majority of Americans.

Which means, to win, one has to be a Liberal Republican… Just look at the polls. As soon as the Liberal Romney comes out of the closet, the polls get real tight….

But, as we saw with Bush W. You may run as a Liberal, but when you get in, it’s the Conservatives who take over. Two wars, a pharmacy company bailout, and regular government operation, all which were financed by our grand children’s future payroll deductions. They get to make less money so today’s Republicans can take it all.

In other words, to be a Republican President, you have to “trick” yourself into that position.

So, America, I know it sounds nice now, but over and over and over you have said, no that is not what we want.

What we do want, is someone who will do what we want, when they get into running America. let’s take the last president for example. Obama got us out of a recession in record time. One that was far worse than the Great Depression to some extents. Obama saved the American Automobile Industry. To do so he had to drive hard bargains against all parties . Obama killed Osama Bin Laden. America got what it paid for when they voted Obama.

Why change horses in the middle of the stream, especially when the other horse is heading back in the other direction? The wrong direction according to almost all Americans?

Romney knows that backwards direction leads to ruin. That is why the new Romney pushed the campaign message- minder outside the inner circle, and why Romney is now currently running for women’s rights. for the secularization of government, for the complete protection of the environment, for the elimination of greenhouse gases, and for the increase of taxes on the wealthy. That is why Romney is doing better in the polls….

Conservatism is truly dead.

For Those Who Follow DelawarePolitics.Net

I’m trying to put all your ideas together into one package. So, let me get this right… All you are asking is for, is a country where:

1) There is no universal healthcare.
2) Few entitlement programs.
3) Low Flat Tax System.
4) Faith based Government.
5) A deep reverence for God.
6) Extremely strict rules against abortion.
7) Marriage has already been strictly defined as between man and woman.
8) Homosexuality is a sin, and illegal.
9) Dress Codes are strictly enforced.
10) Tattoos, piercings, baggy pants, are banned.
11) Has the Death Penalty which they aren’t shy about using.
12) Strong private school system with religious focus.
13) Widespread dependency on oil and natural gas drilling.
14) Growing nuclear program
15) Nonexistent environmental nuisances
16) Culture that promotes family and stereotyped roles for men and women.

I’ve endeavored to put all your values on one page. I share your frustration because today, ever since 2008, it seems like America is moving further and further away from these values.

But you don’t have to be frustrated anymore. I have looked far and wide and have discovered a place already in existence that has those values in place, and more. If you sorely long for those values above, it is sincerely a place where you and your family would be very happy.

It is Iran.

You don’t have to pay me. I don’t need any commission. Just glad to help a fellow Delawarean out…. No problem.

Then There’s Newt Gingrich….

Again, lifted from Der Spiegal

The current favorite? He’s a political dinosaur, dishonored and discredited. Or so we thought. Yet just because he studied history and speaks in more complex sentences than his rivals, the US media now reflexively hails him as a “Man of Ideas” (The Washington Post) — even though most of these ideas are lousy if not downright offensive, such as firing unionized school janitors, so poor children could do their jobs.

Pompous and blustering, Gingrich gets away with this humdinger as well as with selling himself as a Washington outsider — despite having made millions of dollars as a lobbyist in Washington. At least the man’s got chutzpah.

The hypocrisy doesn’t end here. Gingrich claims moral authority on issues such as the “sanctity of marriage,” yet he’s been divorced twice. He sprang the divorce on his first wife while she was sick with cancer. (His supporters’ excuse: It’s been 31 years, and she’s still alive.) He cheated on his second wife just as he was pressing ahead with Bill Clinton’s impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky affair, unaware of the irony. The woman he cheated with, by the way, was one of his House aides and 23 years his junior — and is now his perpetually smiling third wife.

Americans have a short memory. They forget, too, that Gingrich was driven out of Congress in disgrace, the first speaker of the house to be disciplined for ethical wrongdoing. Or that he consistently flirts with racism when he speaks of Barack Obama. Or that he enjoyed a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany’s just as his campaign was financially in the toilet and he ranted about the national debt. Chutzpah, indeed.

Yet the US media rewards him with a daily kowtow. And the Republicans reward him too, by having put him on top in the latest polls. Mr. Hypocrisy, the bearer of his party’s hope.

“I think he’s doing well just because he’s thinking,” former President Clinton told the conservative online magazine NewsMax. “People are hungry for ideas that make some sense.” Sense? Apparently it’s not just the Republicans who have lost their minds here.

Carbon Caps and the New Economy

Yesterday the EPA moved forward with the pronouncement that Greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. They overturned 8 years of inactivity by the previousl administration, in recognizing the threat of global warming…

It is hoped that the prospect of the White House taking action could push Congress to come to an agreement.

In the post below, I posted Delaware’ CO2 emissions from the year 2006, as compiled by Delaware’s Energy Office. These corporations will no doubt suffer some economic ill effects if Carbon Taxes go into effect..

You will no doubt hear how your electric bill will rise if we began to tax carbon…

Here is how you have to look at it… You have to look at your energy bill and health costs as one lumped together expense… If you pay more for energy, but drop your health bill down to zero, your overall financial stature will be improved…

That is how this must be seen… As long as your total health and energy bills combined, do not grow, you are holding at the same level… If total of both grow, you are worse off; if the total of both drop, you are better off….

Therefore those families living around Delmarva’s power plant near Fox Point, need to consider the asthma medicine they spend on all their children when they pay their electric bill.. If, they can by God’s grace, eliminate that asthma medicine due to the fact that they need it no more, then their family’s income-after-expenses will grow…

That is how Carbon taxes must be viewed..

Now those who actually read Chapter 4 of the Kavipsian Theory of Economics, already know how Carbon Taxes benefit the United States economy… You know who you are..

For the rest of you, here is a refresher….

On the global scale, Carbon taxes will be levied as are tariffs today… For instance, if the United States refuses to sign on to the Carbon tax arrangement, then those other countries buying our products, tack on a tariff to cover the Carbon tax we did not collect.. That makes our products as high or higher than those of other nations…which on a global scale, hurts us economically.

On the reverse, if we enact a carbon tax upon our power plants and other sources of carbon, then we can trade with other nations doing so because our tariffs cancil out.. We don’t pay an excess.. Our prices are more competitive..

Developing nations, who do not tax their carbon, must pay our tariff on their products coming into our country. This makes them more expensive, and less competitive against our own manufacturing, despite the difference in the costs of labor…

So as the largest consumer, if the United States moves quickly to the forefront of this policy and begins to tax carbon before others can catch up, we gain an economic advantage, even though our carbon energy costs will rise by that taxed amount…

If you were an investor, doing manufacturing within the United States, now appears to be cheaper than offshoring all factories.. What’s the point, when the economic advantage of manufacturing offshore, has just been negated?

Speed is essentual.. Those nations playing catch up do not see a competitive economic advantage… The US due to our size and wealth has the potential to lead, and in doing so, creates a better marketplace for investors to put their money here…

So as some decry that raising the cost of energy in a bad economy will dampen growth, you can now inform them that doing so, brings investment back into the US… It also raises the costs of other nations imports, making our own products more competitive…

And it does all this, while dropping our medical bills at the same time….

How Clean Is Your Air, Delaware?

Courtesy of the Delaware Energy Office

Carbon Caps will Drop Our Rates!…..Eventually…..

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Senate will decide this week whether to follow in California’s footsteps and pass legislation requiring cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change.

Lawmakers are set to vote Monday to begin debate on a bill that could reshape the U.S. economy by requiring industry to pay to emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

Opponents call it a new tax on industry that could raise gas prices and energy bills for consumers.

Now before I knew anything about wind power coming to Delaware, I would be apprehensive about taxing carbon and “increasing the costs to power plants, distributors, and consumers…….

But knowing what I now know, that all carbon prices are about to go ballistic as did our automobile and truck fuel, the faster we leave a carbon based economy, the faster we will pull out of this recession.

Congess just cannot slap the tax on carbon immediately. My recommendation is to start the tax in 2014, giving America 5 years to wean itself off carbon based electricity. Five years could do it…

Wind, particularly offshore wind, if built large enough is the cheapest form of energy available to us today. If solar improves to where it crosses the 10 cents/kwh barrier, it too can become a player….

There is enough wind power capacity in North Dakota to fuel the entire grid of North America…..

The financials show it could be done today for 2.3 cents per kwh… Imagine, all of the US energy needs met at 2.3 cents per kwh. Your $200 monthly electric bill would instead be $40 dollars. Which is right about where it needs to be…….

But not all the wind needs to come from North Dakota, even though it has tremendous potential……Up and down the Eastern seaboard, giant wind farms could drop our prices and save on long distance transmission costs…. From Texas to North Dakota, the wind belt could drive America’s mid section energy prices down to a tolerable level…..

By dropping worldwide demand, we could stop our dependence on energy coming from the Mid East. Being the sole planetary source of 2.3 cents per kwh of electricity, our manufacturing base could again begin to grow in places where it once walked away from union labor……Ohio and Michigan. What automobile company could pass up savings of 20 cents per kwh over what the paid in their home country?

Back to Carbon caps and taxes…..Taxing something that is bad for you at a rather high rate, is ironically a very good thing. It forces you to wean yourself off its toxic properties and seek another solution. It does so expediently. Forcing you to move quickly before your money disappears..unlike a government directive facing appeal after appeal after appeal…….

So raising the price of carbon is in the cards…..the higher the tax, the faster we move to a really cheap source of energy and power…..cheaper than all but the oldest of you can remember……

And if timed right, it won’t cost us a penny. For paying a million dollars for a kwh of coal fired electricity is moot, it there is no kwh of coal fired electricity left to be taxed…. …..

Why We Blog

Because that……. is what we do.

Journey Through Time

Today I had the privilege of traveling through time. Not physically, but my travels were done in a way that was both metaphorical and symbolic. They led me through a time warp.

My path took me up a hill to a nearby wind farm, whose turbines were owned by FLP. Even underneath its base, there was no grating noise, only a minute squeak after every 5 revolutions. The hilltop had been cleared, allowing for a maintenance road to traverse the ridge line. On two distant ridges I saw more rows of turbines turning.

The city of Meyersdale, PA was surrounded by wind turbines.

On the way down, a narrow two lane road, I passed a double horse buggy, of man and wife headed across the mountain. I had often wondered how pioneers had navigated mountains with horse pulled wagons, and now plodding up the hill towards me, I saw it could be done. Thinking I wanted to talk, (my window was down due to the springiness of the weather) he stopped his horses on the 5% grade, and feeling bad for what I had caused him to do, I traded pleasantries with them. Pulling away I saw the horses start their walk up the steep hill, probably grateful for the brief minutes rest.

Now there is a self sufficient community that will not feel the crunch caused by the rise in energy prices, nor feel the inflation of high food prices caused by the rapid devaluation of the dollar. Plus any of their surplus items sold from their farms, should fetch a fair penny, too. And we and weird Al Yankovich use to think they were living in the last century, and not the next one……..

Later while on my drive a news station brought up the Iranian oil and gas crises. The crises is not with the Iranians. It is with the United States which after having vilified Iran and will now receive none of the abundant cheap energy that Iran has now to offer. China, India, and Europe are extremely interested in Iran’s natural gas, to such an extent that a 5 billion dollar pipeline will eventually stretch from Iran through Turkey, the Balkans, Hungary, and into Western Europe. This will give Europe a hedge against the Russian propensity to shut off their gas lines whenever the West practices politics the Russians do not like. In the other direction a pipeline to India and China will give those two giant energy starved nations the source of energy they need.

Unfortunately, the US is not even allowed at the bidding table, due to the politics of the Bush administration. The State Department has condemned the deal, but Western Europe, China, and India, have decided that the State Department, as long as it is being run by Condi Rice, is irrelavant at best. We can’t even get Europe to assist us in Afghanistan anymore, due to their previous perilous treatment from the hands of our own neocons……

The bad news is that gas will be available to other countries, but not us…..The fear is that we will be left with no choice but coal. Dirty coal will burn and give us our electricity.

Unless we forswear off fossil fuels altogether. Wind is a valid source. So is solar. These two sources together could theoretically power our nation’s entire grid, with ample investment. What if we let the rest of the world fight over carbon sources, while we go green and clean, cheaper than our competitive nations could with coal or gas? Eventually they too will be forced to seek out our technology.

Electric cars are the best bet for the future of automobile travel. Plug into a grid supplied by renewable sources of energy, release, and drive. Neither pollution, nor CO2 would be released for either our principle source of power or our transportation.

With electric cars, will still be able to afford to drive, while the rest of the world idles their cars until they catch up to our technology. They have to; they will have no choice when gasoline shoots to 25 dollars a gallon.

As one hears how much global demand for gas, coal, and oil is expected to rise, ( look at China’s growth the last ten years and apply that to India, Africa, and South America) it is imperative that we aggressively work to abandon our dependance on all carbon fuels.

The establishment of Delaware’s wind farm off of Rehoboth Beach, is certainly a cheap step in the right direction. We know there will need to be many more wind farms up and down our coastlines, if this nation is to remain solvent. Delaware’s expertise at building a wind farm off U. S. shores, can boost our local economy beyond anything we have seen up to this point.

So…….. by seeing the future, talking to the past, and listening to the present, it became obvious to me, (and hopefully to you, reader, as well), that like the Amish, if we make ourselves self sufficient when it comes to satisfying our energy needs, harnessing what nature has given us, we can weather our future energy shocks with hardly a problem…………

Haiku Moment (5-7-5)

For twenty-five years

We’ll pay less for electric

Than 20 states now.

WTF

photo by SUCHAT PEDERSON, News Journal