February, 2020, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Democrats Attack The First Amendment, Biden Like Illegal Immigrants More Than Americans and More

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) One thing that American politicians never to seem to understand is that we enjoy having the protection of the First Amendment, the ability to have freedom of speech unencumbered by restrictions that these same politicians want to put upon us. The First Amendment might be the greatest document ever written by humanity when it comes to freedom but that in no way stops politicians from wanting to pen it up, criminalize it, restrict, and eventually do away with it.

The latest example of this restriction of freedom comes from Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. Warren wants to “to create civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating false information about when and how to vote in U.S. elections.” She also wants to put a national security expert in charge of sniffing out and punishing those who spread such information.

So many problems with this: 

• What criteria will be used to determine what is “false information” vs. just being misinformed?
• If a politician like Warren disagrees with your opinion, does that make it false and thus subject you to prosecution?
• Will there be degrees of false information dissemination, is one level a misdemeanor and one level a felony and who determines what the right level and punishment is?
• How is the national security expert to be selected and what will be their duties and restrictions vs. the First Amendment rights of every American?

Words like censorship, dictatorship, and George Orwell come to mind, allowing a politician to judge who is honest and who is a political opponent that needs to be shut down? Orwell warned us when he said,”Big Brother is watching.” We ignore his words and trust Warren, a politician who has a long history of lying, at our own risk.

2) But Warren is not the only politician that wants to restrict our freedom. Congressman Adam Schiff was the primary ring leader in the circus that was the impeachment of Trump. Even though Trump has not proven guilty of anything Schiff said in this opening statement to the Senate that the decision to remove Trump cannot be left to the election and voters exercising their First Amendment rights.

In other words, Trump’s political opponents need to take Trump out and cut tens of millions of Trump voters out of the equation and violate their Constitutional rights. Rush Limbaugh summed this idiocy quite nicely: “Meaning we can’t wait for the American people to decide because you people don’t know enough to throw the guy out. The Democrats have to be in charge of this. Your vote doesn’t count anymore.”

The hypocrisy of politicians has no end and no morals. Democrats are scared that they do not have an answer to the Trump Presidency, just looking at their leading candidates to be President can prove this point, and they have no trepidations about squashing our voting rights to get their political objectives satisfied. Pathetic and disgusting attack on freedom.

3) Not only Warren trying to take away our First Amendment rights but residents of the state of Virginia are having their First Amendment rights under attack by state politicians:

• State Democrats in the Virginia legislature have actually put together some potential legislation that would criminalize any criticisms of state politicians and government workers.
• Specifically the legislation states that “If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
• The legislation is specific who cannot be criticized and includes the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and just about every other Virginia state official and politician.
• The wife of a Republican Virginia politician sums up this First Amendment attack: “Wow on cue, now they are after the 1A! Dems are trying to set up special rules exclusive to the Elite ruling class, to protect themselves from criticism! What is considered harassment? Is Governor Infanticide/KKK Hood trying to avoid being held accountable? Are we no longer allowed to demand justice for the alleged rape victims of LG Fairfax? This is some straight up communist censorship!”

A few days ago we discussed the incident involving New York Senator Chuck Schumer where he had a problem on a plane when an airline stewardess politely asked him to get off his cell phone so a plane could take off. After objecting to having to obey the rules that regular citizens are bound by, he called the stewardess a “bitch” for treating him like a regular customer. 

This mentality, rules and laws do not apply to politicians, is being reenacted in Virginia: we are above the law and the rules that apply to regular citizens, we need to be treated special. And in the process, they continue to trample the First Amendment.

4) In the latest example of how politicians care more about illegal immigrants than U.S. citizens, consider the criminal justice views of Joe Biden. In a recent interview Biden insisted that he would not deport illegal immigrants who are arrested and found guilty for drunk driving in this country. Yes, in his view it is not only okay for you to be here in this country illegally but if you get behind a wheel of a car while drunk and hurt or kill someone you can still stay in the country.

The reaction to this idiocy was swift including this response from Mothers Against Drunk Driving: “Drunk driving is the #1 killer on America’s roads that should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of the offender’s immigration status. MADD supports the victims of these crashes and their wishes in all drunk driving cases.”

That should do it for today: pompous politicians who do not want to be criticized, the attacks on the First Amendment and Biden continuing to coddle illegal immigrants.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

February, 2020, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: The Insanity of a Minimum Wage Laws, Omar Maybe Married Her Brother and More

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) This first piece of insanity falls unto the “karma” category. Ilhan Omar is a first term Congresswoman from Minnesota. She has been a very vocal and hateful individual during her first term, showing herself to be very anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and implying that anyone that has a different opinion of her is a racist. Obviously she is entitled to her opinion but it is my theory that if you spew hate about the world, fate/karma will eventually come get you:

• She is currently under investigation by the FBI for possibly marrying her brother to circumvent immigration laws of this country.
• A rumor to this effect has been circulating for a while but Omar always denied she had married her brother and attributed the rumor to, of course, a right wing conspiracy theory.
• Reports say that the FBI has documents that show she married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British national, who was in reality her brother in order to get him a green card for entry into this country.
• Shortly after he got into the country they got a divorce.

She is obviously innocent until proven guilty but if she indeed married her brother it is a clear violation of existing law. Should be interesting to see if Pelosi, Nadler, Schiff, etc. look to impeach her and remove her from office since she is one of their kind, all Democrats.

2) The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Michael Bloomberg has already spent $300 million of his own money to run for President. For his $300 million he is still in fourth place and polls less than 10% in opinion polls.

Now, he may eventually win the Democratic nomination and he may actually become President. But the amount of money he is spending so far is obscene. Rather than spending this money for this vanity, ego boosting run for President this funding could have: 

• According to the Feeding America charity organization, on average it costs $2.94 to provide a homeless American a decent meal which means that Bloomberg’s $300 million could have provided two meals a day for an entire year to the entire homeless population in California.
• According to the government’s Drug Abuse website, on average, it costs $6,522 a year to help a drug addicted American to be treated for their addiction which means that Bloomberg’s $300 million could have been used to relieve the drug addiction suffering of almost 46,000 Americans for a year.
• The $300 million could have paid for about 57,000 Americans to have an Obama Care annual bronze health insurance policy.

Look, it’s his money he can do whatever he wants with it. But it is so sad that our political processes have gotten so screwed up that billions of dollars are spent every year on mostly failed political campaigns while millions of Americans are hungry, homeless, and drug addicted. 

3) Many of our more recent political class insanity posts have dealt with the myriad problems that are going down in California. From an obscene financial hole that state spending has resulted in to defecating, urinating, and shooting up drugs on city streets without any criminal penalties to raging homelessness to other problems too numerous to list, the very fabric of a civilized society seems to be bursting apart throughout the state.

Add to that chaos idiocy and stupidity that the San Francisco District Attorney dropped on the city’s police department:

• Radical leftist district attorney Chesa Boudin recently decided not to prosecute a person who slammed a bottle into a city police officer’s face while attacking two police officers.
• The attacker was shot and seriously wounded as a result of his attack on the officers.
• Needless to say that this withdrawal of charges did not sit well with the police officers throughout the city: “The District Attorney has informed me that at this time he will withdraw charges against the suspect,” Police Chief Bill Scott wrote to his officers Friday. “The DA indicated that this withdrawal is not a dismissal of the case. This unprovoked attack was a violent, criminal act. I want you to know that we remain committed to working with the DA to see that justice is done in this case for our officers.”
• In addition, Tony Montoya of the San Francisco Police Officers Association said, “Chesa Boudin just gave a green light to every criminal in San Francisco that it’s now OK to attack a police officer. He must be held accountable for his reckless decision that will further endanger every officer in San Francisco.”

If you do not prosecute people for defecating in the streets, you get more defecating in the streets. If you do not prosecute people for shooting up illegal drugs in the street, you get more people shooting up illegal drugs in the street. And if you do not prosecute those that violently attack police officers, you get more violent attacks on police officers. It is a pretty straightforward equation. But somehow that reality is lost on California politicians.

Thus it is no surprise that citizens and businesses are fleeing the state and why out-of-state organizations have begun pulling their conventions and business meetings from the state, it is just too crazy and dangerous.

4) Politicians do a lot of ignorant and stupid things but they seem to excel at totally not understanding simple economic theory and principles. One area where they constantly screw up is trying to force higher and higher wages on the market and the businesses that operate within that market. What usually happens is that many businesses cannot afford the higher wages politicians force on these businesses so these businesses do what they have to do to survive and be profitable:

1. They raise prices which wipes out some of the benefits of higher wages since local workers now have to pay higher prices in local restaurants, stores, movie theaters, etc.
2. They reduce the hours they afford to workers to make up for the higher wages they have to pay.
3. They find ways to operate more efficiently which usually involves mechanizing business functions that no longer require a human body to do.
4. They go out of business since they cannot absorb or adapt to the new, forced higher wage requirements.

In all of these cases, the workers who got the higher wages are very often worse off than before politicians interfered in the marketplace. In the worst case scenario it goes as follows: the good news is you got a pay raise, the bad news is that we had to eliminate your job because we cannot afford to pay you the pay raise.

These scenarios are now playing out at Target department stores:

• A few years ago the company announced it would get store workers to at least a minimum wage of $15 an hour by the end of 2020.
• But as the wages at Target have inched up over the years since then with the aim of getting to $15 an hour, people started seeing their work hours getting slashed.
• It is so bad that some employees are making less money than they did a few years ago even though they have a higher hourly wage now.
• Take the case of employee, Heather, who told CNN: “I got that dollar raise but I’m getting $200 less in my paycheck. I have no idea how I’m going to pay rent or buy food.”
• Other Target employees, Caren and Michael, also told CNN their hours were cut significantly.
• As a result of getting a higher and higher hourly wage but less hours she lost her health insurance, forcing her to quit her job, while Michael had to pick up a second job just to make ends meet because of his reduced hours.
• One of the drivers behind the fewer hours is that Target has begun deploying self checkout lines which require fewer employees and less expense, see point 3 above.
• A former store manager told CNN: “They really cut those hours back from them with the introduction of self-checkout.” 
• Also, by cutting back the hours to under 30 per week as the self checkout lines take over, the company saves even more money since they do not have to pay health benefits anymore.

So, everything was going along pretty good. People had good jobs in a clean and pleasant work environment, they were making enough money and getting enough work hours to pay their bills, they were getting health insurance from the company, and everyone, employees, management and stockholders, were happy. But along comes the class of politicians who are fixated on the $15 an hour mantra and as a result, employees are making less overall money despite a higher hourly wage, some had to quit, some had to take on another job, and many lost their health benefits. 

All because some politicians do not understand the basic economic principle that nothing is free in this world and all actions, good and bad, have a price and consequences. Nevertheless, they continue to force an artificially high wage on the market and the market, as always, reacts strongly and quickly.

That will do it for today: an alleged crooked Congresswoman, Bloomberg’s expensive folly and bad priorities, disrespecting police officers in California, and the pitfalls of the $15 livable wage myth continues to disrupt and have negative consequences for Americans.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

February, 2020, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Lying Politicians, Pompous Politicians and Inept Politicians.

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) Before going any further on this topic let me say that I realize how horrible it must be to lose a loved one. The pain and grief is overwhelming. And to lose a loved one suddenly is even more gut wrenching since it is unexpected.

So I do not want to come off as uncaring here but it does kind of disgust me that someone would try to leverage the sudden loss of a loved one for political gain:

• In December, 1972, Joe Biden’s wife Neillia and his infant daughter were killed in a tragic car accident.
• The police investigation showed that she had driven into the path of a semi tractor trailer driven by Curtis Dunn.
• Dunn’s truck flipped over trying to avoid the collision.
• The prosecutor in the case concluded that rumors of alcohol use by all involved was unfounded and no charges were brought against Dunn.
• And yet, Biden claimed his wife and child were killed by a drunk driver in both 2001 and 2007 at University of Delaware gatherings.
• Not satisfied to lie/misrepresent facts in 2001 and 2007, in 2008 slandered Dunn and blamed the truck driver’s alcohol drinking for the accident even though there was no factual basis to the claim: “A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly — and I never pursued it — drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly and killed my daughter instantly and hospitalized my two sons …”
• Delaware resident, Pamela Hill, has now demanded a public apology from Biden for slandering the name of her now deceased father.
• Specifically: “We need to set the record straight and clear my father’s name right now before this goes any further.”

So sad that he suffered these sudden loses and so pathetic that he would leverage those losses for political gain and slander an innocent man in the process.

2) Let’s turn to a news article from 2009 by Charles Hurt that I recently came across. Mr. Hunt was writing for the New York Post and gives another example of how politicians like to make rules and also like to ignore them at their whim:

• New York Senator Chuck Schumer was on an airplane flight when a flight attendant asked him to turn off his cell phone as the plane got ready for takeoff.
• Rather than respect the rules, the flight attendant, and the pilot who announced that cell phones had to be turned off, Schumer continued his cellphone discussion.
• Schumer asked if he could finish his conversation but the attendant said no, they were waiting for him to finish his call so the plane could then take off.
• According to the article: “The state’s senior senator ended his call, but then launched into an argument with her, claiming he was entitled to continue his chat until the cabin door was closed.”
• Schumer then called the flight attendant a “bitch” to his traveling partner after the flight attendant walked away for not allowing him special consideration.

Schumer eventually apologized for the comment but only after the press got hold of the story and it spread far and wide, making one doubt whether he was truly sorry or sorry because he got caught behaving like a five year old. Just another example where a politician thinks they are more important than they really are. England has royalty, we do not, despite what the political class thinks so turn off the darn phone and follow the rules like the rest of us.

3) This story raises a troubling issue with two possible answers, neither of which is good: are California politicians and the state government processes they operate that incompetent or they that nefarious that they are involved in a massive financial cover up

The following discussion comes from the Real Politics website and highlights a legal effort they have underway to open up the state government financial books of California:

• According to Real Politics, California is the only state in the union that does not open up its financials and checkbook for review.
• Opening up the state accounting books would provide the ability for outside sources to review and assess how California is spending taxpayer wealth.
• However, when Real Politics submitted a request to get access to the so-called state “checkbook” to see what expenses were being incurred by the state government, state Controller Betty Yee rejected the request.
• While this rejection was against state law, the reason given for the rejection was that the outrageous claim “that the controller couldn’t locate a single one of the 49 million bills she paid last year.”
• And yet Yee claimed that 99.7% of all state paid bills were proper and legit even though she could not provide the information to support that claim, shredding any credibility she has.
• So the state government paid out hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer wealth and yet could not locate any of the bills???
• Are those running the government that incompetent or are they hiding some big time corruption or both?
• Left with no other choice to find out what is happening to $320 billion a year in the state budget, Real Politics has had to go to court to get the information.
• Their lawsuit wants a line by line detailed accounting of state government expenditures.
• Their track record is pretty in these types of cases since they have “never lost a state checkbook transparency fight. In 2012, we successfully sued Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka (R), and, in 2018, we sued Wyoming State Auditor Cynthia Cloud (R).”

If a private sector accountant said they he or she could not find the checks that the company had paid out they would likely come under immediate criminal suspicion. Auditors would be called in, the SEC and other government agencies might become involved and there would be a thorough scrubbing of the financials. But as a government employee, the California state Controller thinks she can just shrug her shoulders and say the government lost millions of bills?

Seems like the “Chuck Schumer” syndrome we just discussed, the political class passes the rules and laws for the rest of us but they seem to think they can get a pass whenever they want even if it involves shenanigans involving a whopping $320 billion.

Alright, this is a good start to this month’s political class insanity: lying politicians, pompous politicians, and incompetent politicians and government workers. Sounds about right.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

January, 2020, Part 3, Why I Am A Global Warming Doubter and a Believer In Science: Wind Power Blows Environmentally And More

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control on our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical post listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) Apparently folks in South Australia decided that they wanted to go all in with solar and wind energy. In fact, they got their use of renewable energy up to 50% of their electricity production and usage, helped greatly by subsidized wind and solar energy projects. This effort and accomplishment got them the love and admiration of global warming advocate around the world.

But there are a number of problems with this reality:

• In South Australia the retail cost of electricity per kilowatt is 47.13 cents.
• In the United States, the retail cost is per kilowatt is 15.75 cents.
• In fact, the cost of electricity in South Australia is higher than every other country in the world.
• Thus, the United States, which has significantly annually reduced by tens of millions of tons it’s carbon output pays one third the cost for electricity than a region that has gone hog wild for solar and wind energy.
• Keep in mind that the government heavily subsidized the creation of solar and wind power in South Australia to get to 50%.

So taxpayers down under paid taxes to get solar and wind energy access which has resulted in electricity rates that are higher than anywhere else in the world and three times the cost of our electricity in this country. Not a great financial deal for anyone other than those running the subsidized solar and wind infrastructure and companies.

2) The Convention of States movement is a great effort to get the Federal government under control by leveraging Article V in the Constitution to get the Federal budget under control and impose term limits on career politicians. Politicians have destroyed our freedoms, the country’ financial viability, and continue to tax us into oblivion. 

The Convention of States recently ran an article on some shenanigans that master politician Obama put forth regarding the myth of man made global warming:

• Kevin Dayaratna, speaking at the 13th International Conference on Climate asserted that the real cost of carbon dioxide emissions are often “all over the map” because the data can be “rigged by politicians” to get the results and public impact they want.
• Specifically: “The statistical models used by the Obama administration to set regulatory policy are flawed because they are highly prone to user manipulation, Dayaratna told conferees.”
• As background: when people build statistical models, they build in assumption structures and then calculate results using a certain set of assumptions.
• Notice I said “a set of assumptions,” most good statistical models allow you to vary assumptions which usually results in different forecasts and results.
• The trick to being a good statistical modeler and forecaster is to make sure you have the right set of assumptions that most closely match reality.
• The trick of being a bad statistical modeler and forecaster is to make sure that you have a set of assumptions that result in model calculations that give you the answer you want, not necessarily the answer that is most closely aligned with reality.
• Which is the point that Dayaratna is trying to make: Obama may have had great statistical models but it is likely he used bad assumptions to get the answer he wanted, not the best answer relative to reality.
• He could then tout the results he came up with, “see, this is what the model spit out,” and try to convince people that the answer has to be right because it is what the model calculated and ignore the fact that the assumptions were manipulated to get the result he wanted.
• Back to Obama’s model: his EPA defined the social cost of carbon as the “economic damages per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions.” 
• Dayaratna played around with the Obama model assumptions to see what might happen and test the sensitivity and reasonableness of the model and different assumption sets.
• His analysis and assumptions found that Obama’s carbon forecasts dropped anywhere from 40% to 200% with non-radical, logical changes to the assumptions.
• In fact, he found assumption sets that said increased carbon had net positive impacts on society.
• His conclusions: “The sheer fact that these models can be manipulated to get any result you want speaks volumes to their uselessness in regulatory policy and the danger of putting them into the hands of policymakers.”

There is an old saying among old statisticians like myself: “torture the data long enough and it will say anything you want.” Which is what Obama and a lot of global warming advocates have done over time: they torture the data, they torture the assumptions, and they turn out great public relations sound bites. 

Remember the inane sound bite that “97% of climate scientists support man made global warming.” Totally bogus number but a number that tortured analyses and bad assumption sets finally created to suit the needs of people like Obama and Al Gore. Or to paraphrase Dayaratna, you would not give a gun to kid so why trust politicians with statistical models that they do not understand?

3) We will finish up this post and this month’s discussion on global warming with an analysis from the Self Reliance website. It took a hard look not at what wind power does for us once in operation but also the back end and front end financial costs and environmental costs of installing and removing wind infrastructure, costs that are not pretty:

• With decades worth of wind infrastructure having been installed in this country, one set of research estimates that the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of wind turbine blade material that will have to be taken care of over the next 20 years since the average life of a wind turbine is only about 20 years and there are 60,000 wind turbines already in this country, i.e. this disposal problem is not going to go away anytime soon.
• Wind turbine blades are not small, they are usually about 135 feet long so taking them down and getting rid of them is not a low cost job.
• A typical wind turbine contains 8,000 components of which many are made from steel, cast iron, and concrete.
• Some components are made from rare earth metals, neodymium and dysprosium, which are mined almost exclusively in China. 
• These required components require energy intensive efforts to mine, ship, refine and manufacture wind turbines that only have a 20 year life cycle.
• These “before” efforts have significant negative environmental and cost impacts.
• And the “after” efforts of taking them down also have significant environmental and cost impacts.
• The research paper, “Unsustainable Wind Turbine Blade Disposal Practices in the United States”, Ramirez-Tejeda et al. in 2017 analyzed the nightmare of taking wind turbines down after they had lived their useful life.
• They estimate there will be 43 million tons of blades around the world that will have to be disposed of over the coming decades.
• The obvious question is how and where do you get rid of these 43 million tons of metal and concrete.

So there are big financial and environmental costs getting wind turbines operational and big financial and environmental costs getting rid of them at the end of their life. The more you know about the COMPLETE life cycle of a wind turbine the more you realize that they be a solution that is worse than the problem from an environmental perspective.

The Self Reliance article also documented the massive negative wildlife impact of wind turbines:

• The Audubon Society estimates that wind turbines kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year, with their high end estimate at 328,000.
• Experience shows that eagles are especially in danger of wind turbines.
• Scientists estimate that turbines kill anywhere from 3 to 5 million bats every year.
• In fact, some bat species may face extinction in the very near future because of their migratory patterns and their always fatal encounters with wind turbines.
• Given that bats eat all kinds of other creatures like mosquitoes, making human life better, this is not a good trend.

So what did learn today: wind turbines have some tremendous financial, environmental, and living creature downsides, never trust a politician with a statistical model, and renewable energy is really, really expensive at the retail level.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w