When future historians write about the decline and fall of the United States, I expect a good portion of the blame will be on climate change.
No, we won’t be brought to our knees by a slight rise of temperature or an increase in bad weather; this once-great nation will be brought to its knees because its leadership spent its time and money undermining the fossil fuel energy industry that made it great and requiring its citizens to use technology that is not ready for prime time. For example, states are passing laws outlawing gasoline and diesel engines well before suitable replacements and infrastructure will be available. They think this will force development of the technology, but sufficient batteries will not be available by 2035 and probably not even by 2050.
They are also banning gas stoves and furnaces in some cities, placing even more strain on the electrical grid. For those that aren’t paying attention, the grid is in bad shape. Hot weather stresses it. Cold weather stresses it. Pretty soon, electric vehicles will stress it.
China is building coal burning power plants while selling us solar panels. If solar energy was that effective, don’t you think China would be holding on to those panels?
Many of the largest contributors to global warming, including India and China, aren’t investing in solar and wind at the expense of fossil fuels. Instead, they are buying cheap Russian oil and gas. That’s going to give them an economic advantage compared to the U.S. and Europe, where a significant portion of government spending is going towards green energy instead of paying down the deficit or controlling inflation.
We had the same economic advantage when we were the largest oil producer in the world, but under the Biden Administration, we turned our back on that advantage.
Wokeness
Hand-in-hand with this false fixation on green energy is the fixation on pronouns and other “woke” ideas. I don’t care what you think if yourself or what you call yourself. I also don’t care if you drive an electric vehicle and refuse to eat meat. What I object to is being told I can’t eat meat, or that I must drive an electric vehicle or that my daughter – who was quite a Tomboy when she was 8 – should have her gender changed by her school without my knowledge.
Let me get this straight: a kid who isn’t old enough to buy a beer, vote in an election, join the military, get married, sign a contract, or buy a gun is somehow old enough to decide to render useless the genitalia they were born with? How can the woke mob justify that?
I’m all for freedom, but it has to be a two-way street. You can make up words to call yourself and you can create new ways to define how you feel, but you can’t force others to use them. I’m sure polite people will humor you, but my first amendment rights do not end when your feelings get hurt.
It’s also undermining our country when governments and corporations make hires to show that they are woke. Hire the most qualified, regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, age, class, sex, or preferred pronouns.
Civil War or Revolution?
A good friend called me a few days ago and said he was in his local gun store the other day and the talk was about the possibility of a civil war. Apparently, the guys who hang around in his gun store think the Trump indictment will be the push needed to start a civil war. (This makes me think one or two things: one, the gun store hangers use this a test to see where your politics lie when you walk into the store, or two, the people stirring up such talk are FBI stooges looking for someone they can talk into building a bomb so they can make a bust. That’s common informant behavior; don’t fall for it.)
I told him I don’t think we are heading for a civil war, but we may see a revolution. Then I explained: people who predict a civil war see it as red states against blue states. A revolution is the people against the government. I don’t see us rural states attacking people in California, New York, or Massachusetts. I can, however, see a future that includes large-scale action against unjust actions by the government, either state or federal. The number of sheriffs refusing to enforce federal gun laws and states like Texas voting to allow the sale of silencers made in Texas to Texans outside the NFA are just two examples of how close the Federal government is to a revolt.
Right now, the feds get much of what they want through financial inducement and rewards. As the pot of money they draw upon to bribe states to follow Federal regulations dwindles and the dollars they dole out become less valuable, I expect their influence will wane.
I just hope those planning for a revolution have read Unintended Consequences by John Ross. That’s the kind of revolution we need.
Time to Strike
Did you ever wish that if you ignored the government, it would go away? Well, if we ignore their edicts and regulations, if they lose support of the people and the states, much of the government’s power will disappear. That’s kind of what John Galt did in Atlas Shrugged. He withdrew his resources, his intellect, his hard work, and his innovations from the system (and convinced others to do the same) and the system collapsed under its own weight.
I can see that happening, if we all decided to be like Galt and go on strike against the government to “stop the motor of the country.” Remember when I mentioned freedom earlier? Let’s all remember that we are free to withhold our support for a government and withdraw from a society that we consider evil or misguided.
Recent strikes and protests in the Netherlands and Israel have changed the course of government actions. France is learning first hand that they can only govern with the support of the governed. At some point, the U.S. government will reach the same tipping point.
Rip off the Bandage
I am not a prepper who sits in his basement surrounded by guns and MREs looking forward to the collapse. I’ve much rather see a recovery in which the country and its people return to, say, the Reagan era, where we are proud of our country, what it stands for, and the belief in American greatness. Yet I don’t see that happening. I think we’re going down.
The question is, do you want to rip the bandage off and collapse quickly or peel it off slowly and we slide progressively (pun intended) down the slope?
If this is the slow slide, I say rip it off. The sooner we get it over, the sooner we can bounce back stronger.
By the way, back in 2021, I recommended four books all preppers should read. That list remains valid to this day.
