Posted on 08/24/2016 10:50:24 AM PDT by MichCapCon
I remember a time — not that long ago — when Americans had an undisputed right to support causes in which they believed. I also remember a time when elected officials — from both sides of the aisle — staunchly supported that right.
That’s why I was saddened to see government officials, including members of Congress, acting as the enemies of free speech, singling out individuals and organizations that have the audacity to hold contrary views on energy use and climate policy.
Those who believe the so-called consensus view on climate and the environment are safe to express their concerns at every opportunity — but it is open season on those whose opinion differs. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and 19 Senate Democrats, lead by Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, are wielding the threat of investigation and prosecution like a club. Their rhetoric shows they intend to silence people and groups that, citing concerns about human health and well-being, have criticized plans to restrict energy choices. Of course Lynch and the senators cover their acts of harassment with slick arguments, mischaracterizing a policy disagreement as fraud.
In mid-July, Whitehouse and 18 other Democrats, including Gary Peters of Michigan, took to the floor of the Senate, attacking the free speech rights of Americans who support the continued use of fossil fuels. These senators claimed their targets were spinning a “web of denial” about climate change.
Their actions demonstrate that those who believe the so-called consensus view on climate and the environment are safe to express their concerns at every opportunity — but it is open season on those whose opinion differs. In fact, the production and use of fossil fuels so disturbs some elected officials and special interests that they are working toward stopping many uses of energy altogether.
For example, on July 6, 40 anti-fossil fuel protesters attacked the home of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. Demanding that he expedite the closure of Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, the protesters poured chocolate syrup on his driveway to simulate an oil spill. They also waved signs and chanted anti-fossil fuel slogans. And that wasn’t all: Schuette’s wife, who was alone in the house, said protesters beat on her doors and windows so loudly that she feared they were trying to break in. While many people said tactics of the protesters were overdone, no one suggested they should be investigated for their concerns over the use of fossil fuels or climate change.
That same day, a Grist.org article told of a protest outside the White House in which a group of people using the #stopthetrains hashtag loudly called on companies to stop using trains to move crude oil. Again, no one suggests these people should be investigated for their opinions.
Although they campaign against fossil fuels, some activists also reject the most obvious alternative: nuclear power. In a recent letter to the Wall Street Journal, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune rejected its use, calling it dangerous and a “bridge to nowhere.” But I have yet to hear of any senator demanding his prosecution.
And let’s not forget Bill McKibben, an activist described by The Boston Globe as “probably the nation’s leading environmentalist.” McKibben has served as a titular figurehead for the “keep it in the ground” movement, which demands we “keep 80 percent of the fossil-fuel reserves that we know about underground.” When will the U.S. attorney general demand copies of his correspondence with special interests and funding organizations?
These are only a few examples of the increasingly vocal effort to shut down or phase out the energy sources that power modern life. Nuclear and fossil fuel sources provide the country with just over 86 percent of its electricity. In Michigan, they provide over 91 percent.
Reasonable people can disagree on policy options, but reasonable people should also recognize that that shutting down 90 percent of the energy we use to drive our cars, heat our homes, cook our food, power our hospitals and factories, and much, much more is unreasonable.
Reasonable people should also recognize that having elected officials stand up on the floor of the U.S. Senate to attack the rights of Americans, simply because they chose to speak out on a disagreement over energy policy, is appalling.
We do NOT have freedom of speech anymore. If you speak with a conservative point of view publicly and are ID’d, you can become unemployable.
I realize that I am singing to the Choir here, but I have a bad case of Rantitis and there’s no cure. Who says Global Warming is bad? Who gets to decide that? It was supposed to be an Ice Age coming in the late 60s/early 70s - what more evidence does anyone need that these Lunatics are making it up as they go along! This isn’t just the fringe Lefties any more. These nutcases are in charge now, and they want to make big bucks off of your suffering, so they need to shut down the ‘LDQRs’(Logical Deniers/Questioners/Resisters) quickly and harshly to create the necessary fear among the easily stampeded Sheep.
There is absolutely no urgency that merits the draconian measures now going on in plain sight and will be ramped up on steroids if HRC staggers into the WH next January... unless the urgency is to move fast before too many people wise up to the Lies. Wind turbines and solar panels made of toxic materials are in no way benignly ‘clean’ or ‘renewable’ or consistently reliable and definitely not useful on a mass scale. The footprint is huge for the wind ‘farms’ and solar fields. This is just another massive fraud money transfer from We the Peasants to the Select Few who don’t care what happens to you - if you freeze because you can’t pay your bill, all the better - you mouth breathers are putting out too much CO-2 out, and that’s pollution, Fool!
I implore everyone to please STOP using terminology that aids and abets your enemy... words such as ‘renewable’ and ‘fossil fuels’ and ‘clean alternatives’ are LIES. The long-dead Danny the Dinosaur is not responsible for your comfortable homes and cars getting you where you want to go. Oil and natural gas are continuously belched up from the pressurized mantle of the earth, and new sources are discovered all the time all over the planet. No one talks about ‘peak oil’ any more because that was just plain wrong, too.
Cheap energy is good for everyone, but it must remain plentiful to keep the price affordable and to utilize it in the cleanest way possible. No one wants dirty air and water any more, but that’s a separate issue and has nothing to due with Global Warming lies. I grew up in the polluted Detroit area when jobs were plentiful and America was humming. Those plants were shut down rather than modernized. The Fix has been in for a long time to take America’s strength and power sources away.
(One last word on ‘smart’ meters, which are being installed in Michigan homes and businesses. Thank goodness there is an ‘opt out’ because this only benefits the Power company. I will be charged extra money each month for the manual meter read, but it’s well worth it to keep some semblance of control in my hands.)
“And that wasn’t all: Schuette’s wife, who was alone in the house, said protesters beat on her doors and windows so loudly that she feared they were trying to break in.”
Shoot a few.
L
Unless the last Ice Age was THE LAST ICE AGE! There is always another one in the future. Back when I took a geology class (My lab partner was a trilobite!) the professor I had said once in a half serious half joking way, ‘..the earth is an icy planet where the climate has extended temperate periods, that’s when civilization happens...’
Your professor was correct - if it gets as cold here in Michigan as it has the last two winters, I want to take my sorry civilized self somewhere else ;)
I was a geography major back in the 1960s, and I studied climate, weather, greenhouse effect, etc. before it was politicized, so this all makes my old head explodey.
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