Big Oil Knew

31 Thursday Oct 2024

Posted by in Carbon Fuels, Climate Change

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        I am a contributor to several green organizations who try to protect us, wildlife, and the planet. Billions of people are aware of global warming and we are the cause through our burning of the fossil fuels the planet buried millions and billions of years ago. Global warming and our exploding population are causing hundreds of species to go extinct each year. Every year we dig huge holes in planet big enough to be seen from space.

            Today the global warming I studied in 1970 is now called Climate change. We have known that carbon dioxide kept the planets re-radiation’s longer rays from escaping into space for 250 years. Some of the people demonstrating during the first Earth Day tried to make people aware of the danger.

            They tried to say each of us had some responsibility for it, which is true, Big Oil was told by nuclear scientist Edward Teller in 1959 at an American Petroleum Institute meeting so they have been aware but chose to put greed over the safety of their descendants. In 1979 Exxon’s research scientists told management of the dramatic changes in the World’s climate in the next seventy-five years. That’s on track for the projections for 2054.

            The oil giants and coal companies have put money over the future health of humanity and wildlife. As we try to limit the damage we are using more of the CO2 producing fuels and not making significant changes in reducing the damaging effects. How far can the damage go? Venus is the best example of runaway global warming. Its atmosphere is enough to melt lead!

Power Vulnerability

27 Sunday Oct 2024

Posted by in Electrification

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        I like to think I can see both sides of and issue or see solutions to complicated problems but until I read a “Letter to the Editor” in the Chicago Tribune I had missed an obvious conflict. The writer shed a blinding light on the problems with electrification of our country.

            Hurricanes Helene and Milton destroyed power lines, roads, building, wind and solar fields and communications. Some of those destroyed buildings were gasoline stations which mean no fuel for vehicles and generators. Electricity is required for gasoline to be pumped out of stations storage tanks so a trailer mounted generator can supply the much needed fuel but trailer mounted batteries are short term solutions for supplying power to shelters and electric emergency vehicles and buildings.

            Videos of massive pylons blown over and wind turbines bent double shows we need to rebuild in the areas where hurricanes might cause great damage from flooding and wind. We know hurricanes and storms will get stronger, and like Helene, go farther inland with enormous rainfall. The writer correctly demands we protect the lines by using stronger pylons or burying the lines.

            As we depend more and more on electricity for our transportation the more we must have a reliable supply of power to evacuate and return people back home. Currently FEMA can pay to replace infrastructure as it has over and over instead of making it invulnerable. Perhaps a public/private program would solve that problem. We must change our culture of a century ago and leap into the future or continue to suffer the consequences.

Why High Meat Prices

26 Saturday Oct 2024

Posted by in Economy, Meat Prices, U.S. Economy

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        Vice-President Kamala Harris and Democratic Nominee for President 2024 said after she was elected she would go after the food companies that were gouging Americans by inflating prices. I try to pay attention to all news including financial. For several years the Big Four Meat Wholesalers have been getting sued by grocery stores for their operating as a monopoly. We know some of the names because their name goes on some of their products. Harris is probably very aware of those suits although few of us are aware of them.

            Those suits have pretty well stayed far out of the news until a huge user of the products of those four companies filed its lawsuit. When MacDonald’s sued for ripping them off and causing their fourteen thousand restaurants to keep their prices high the media paid attention! However the involvement of the Federal Justice System is dependent on who wins the November elections. If Harris wins the Justice Department will investigate and if Trump wins the monopoly will continue with his support since those companies and their leaders support his election.

            The four companies that MacDonald’s is suing are Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company. The suit says the Big Four have colluded in manipulating prices for over a decade. One way they have done this is by limiting supplies of cattle, hogs, and chickens.

            Other companies’ suits have been consolidated in with MacDonald’s are suits filed by BJ’s Wholesale, Sodexo, Target, and Aldi’s. I assume more companies will now want to be added to those retailers.

Imagine this …

13 Sunday Oct 2024

Posted by in Imagine, President Trump

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        What if Donald Trump had been elected President in 1860 when the South was reacting to the growing discord over the slavery issue? He has repeatedly said the Ukraine should have made a bad agreement than getting their cities destroyed and tens of thousands killed. His 1860 choices would have been for each state to make the decision or cede the Southern States to prevent the war. These two options are based on what he has said recently.

            What if he had been elected in 1932 during the Depression? We know from his past business episodes in court, law suits, financial dealings and his lies none of his Roosevelt’s “Saving America” would have occurred? We know he uses lawyers to prolong civil suits until the companies or employees give up. He has no respect for the working man but has high regard for the working women he pays by the hour. Instead of saving the banks he would have let them fall as he let them take the loss many times when he declared bankruptcy after pulling his money and profits out of the deal. Based on his Ukraine statements Trump would not have helped Churchill to stop Hitler. Of course he would have let Tojo conquer the rest of Asia. He would have been best friends with both and like them, been President until he died. Would he have told his friend Stalin to let his friend Hitler have everything west of the Urals?

            How would the world be today if Trump had been elected in 1960 when his friend Khrushchev put nuclear missiles in Cuba?

            We know the Ukraine-Russia war would not have happened if Trump had not told the Russians in a secret meeting he wouldn’t support the Ukraine. His friend Putin probably would not have invaded if Trump had said he would support the independent country of Ukraine.

Macro-Grid Needed

11 Friday Oct 2024

Posted by in Power-Grids

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            Most people who live in my area do not realize that much of the United State is not connected to those big power carrying transmission lines, I live about ten miles from Dresden Nuclear Power station which was the first commercially owned nuclear Power Station. It went on line in 1957 about 14 years before we moved into the area. The Commonwealth Edison Company built a network of those big transmission lines spreading out from the station like the strands of a spider web. When they added two more nukes, the web expanded so my area is crisscrossed with the lines. Other fossil plants have come and gone, and a new gas fired plant has been built across the road from Dresden.

             Since these lines were mostly built before we moved here. I don’t remember any big objections like I see today about pipe lines. However around the country the “not in my backyard” groups and the fossil industry are blocking attempts for a true and much needed national macro-grid so power can be sent from one region to another. That means wind, solar, and battery and nuclear power can be sent from one region to another. That means Green Energy can be moved around the country cheaply. Building a national grid would allow power to come into an area that has lost its local power generators such as what happened in Texas during 2021 winter storm froze its fossil plants. Their only outside link was Energy’s small transmission lines to some areas of East Texas. Pride goeth after the storm, because the Texas grid is going to finally connect to a regional grid for emergency high cost use. Some of Houston hasn’t recovered from the June hurricane damage.

            In some states landowners have no ability to keep those towers off their land even if they are paid for the right. We need that macro grid connecting the Southwest’s massive solar projects and the Midwest’s wind farms to the users. So how do we get it done?

            About twelve years ago a genius, Dale Osborn, working for the Midwest Power Grid (MISD) had a brilliant idea which overcomes the landowner complaints and the battle with the conservation groups. The free land exists across our nation. It is called the Interstate Highway system. The poles are located between lanes or inside the fences. The highways go where the grid needs to go.

            Osborn had worked in a European power company and was familiar with another necessary change. Instead of a power losing alternating current the macro-grid would carry direct current which would allow power from the West coast to reach the East coast with little loss. As a local company got power from the macro grid they would change it to agree with their sixty hertz grid. China uses direct current lines to ship an unbelievable twelve gigawatts at 1.1 million volts from its power generating southwest to its East Coast Plants and population. Our AC lines do not even compare.

Much of this essay can be found in the extensive article in the Sierra Club’s Fall 2023 issue. We are members of this great organization.

Not A War Zone – Really?

08 Tuesday Oct 2024

Posted by in War Zone

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        I hear so many people say we are not living in a War Zone while many others say we are. What constitutes a War Zone? Is it when the civilians are killed indiscriminately? Is it when men, women, and children are mowed down by automatic weapons?

            We say it is criminal for Russia to be killing civilians with their drones, missiles, artillery and guns. In fact over fifteen thousand were killed by the Russians in the Ukraine during 2023. The Israeli military has killed over forty thousand so far in Gaza. These deaths were militaries killing civilians by the thousands from afar or from high above.

            Is it a War Zone when its military killed civilians like in Croatia? What is it called when civilians kill other civilians in large numbers? We usually think various parts of American cities are War Zones because of gang warfare but what is it when a small town grade school has students and staff killed? Here’s the facts on civilian Deaths” Ukraine – over 15,500 in 2023, Gaza – over 40,000 in the last year, and the United States over 42,500 in 2023. At what level of death do we say we live in a War Zone?

            The pro-gun lobby says regulations and restrictions don’t work and use northern big cities in gun control states as an example. What they don’t say is those states are next to states with few, if any, gun laws. The vast majority of the guns confiscated in Chicago and Cook County came from other states and particularly from Indiana.

            Only a tiny percentage of the murders in America are caused by people with what we consider mental problems. Most of it is because the killer had a gun when the victims angered them. If the Supreme Court says the Second Amendment allow us to carry guns then why can’t we carry them into their court? Would that become a War Zone?

Unfortunately I Remember

27 Friday Sep 2024

Posted by in Politics, Republican Party

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I was born shortly after the war – World War Two – and have a tremendous memory of trivial and momentous events. I remember seeing B-52 bombers using my hometown as the turning point on their training runs to bomb Evansville, Indiana. I remember some neighbors digging bomb shelters during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember my Grandfather giving me five silver dollars for learning my ABCs and another five for counting to a hundred. I am still bothered by memories of the first fish I caught and the first animal I killed. Memories are both good and bad.

Some of the bad memories are of political corruption like the brother of a well-liked U.S. Representative who built Holiday Inns outside several towns in Southern Illinois. People thought he was crazy until they ended up just outside I-57 interchanges.  Before he retired his supporters bought him a personal helicopter.

I remember when the Republican Party cast out Vice-President Spiro Agnew and a few years later his boss, President Richard Nixon. The party stood for high morals and a strong Military to defend the United States and its allies. It punished its own for straying off its moral compass. In spite of its conservative slant the party crossed the aisle often to pass laws that Presidents of both parties wanted. The Environmental Protection Act was under President Nixon. Medicare and some other badly needed elements of the Great Society were under President Johnson.

Both parties’ candidates did some impolite bantering and a little name calling but limits were known by both parties. Today the party has totally lost its way and gone off the tracks. Today those who stand for morals and honesty are shunned and ridiculed. Today the party has become what it used to abhor and hate. I hope to forget today’s GOP.

Tariffs Are Inflationary

21 Saturday Sep 2024

Posted by in Inflation, President Trump

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        I just bought a microwave to replace a decades old one. It is a little more complicated than the old one but cost less than half the old one cost. It will take a little while to become comfortable with it.

            After Menard’s rebate the cost will be about $98.00.  Let’s give Menards’s a small profit after expenses and say it cost them $85.00. Transportation to the Menards’ warehouse from the West coast harbor is $2.00. The shipping from China to the West Coast is probably $3.00. That leaves the cost to Menards at factory about $80.00. Now I don’t know if these numbers are correct but former President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated he would impose a 20% to 50% tariff on Chinese manufactured products. A 20% tariff would have added $16.00 to my price of $98.00. The cost would now be $114.00.

            Tariffs cause inflation when they are applied and raise the cost of products to all Americans and do nothing to punish China because no microwave is made here. If a product isn’t made here to compete with an imported one then it doesn’t create competition. It just costs more.

            Before income taxes the main source of income for the Federal Government was tariffs. In spite of what politicians say, decreasing or adding the cost to an import is a political decision. Reducing tariffs can reduce inflation or raising tariffs will increase inflation. Trump has talked about inflation – far from being the highest in his lifetime – but on his first day he would raise tariffs on all imports. Economists say that could raise inflation to over twelve percent. Think about the plans Trump spouts before voting for him.

Not Again…

17 Tuesday Sep 2024

Posted by in Russian Interference, Ukraine

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        Donald Trump has often been compared with Adolph Hitler for the way he is able to mesmerize people into doing his will while maintaining a hands-off stance. The January sixth insurrection was a great example. Another is his effort to overthrow the election through the use of his devoted minions. He could have pardoned them all but that would have cast a shadow on his reputation and his innocence.

            However, Trump has now changed historic char actors by explaining how he would end the Russo-Ukrainian War during and interview saying he would force Ukraine to accept a new Eastern Boundary and give Putin 20% of their country. In return the Ukraine would stay neutral and not join any political or economic associations with the West. Maybe the original comparison is right. His stance on Ukraine was the reason for the last assignation attempt.

            Historians know this was much like the “Peace in Our Time” agreement England’s Chamberlain made with Hitler. Hitler had marched his troops into the Rhineland without any interference. Then he wanted about a third of Austria. The Western Powers, England and France agreed to his demands for Peace. Since they were so compliant he didn’t think they had the backbone to go to war over his conquest of Poland.  He invaded on September 1st and the Allies declared war on the third.

            The West must give complete and unrestricted support of the Ukraine. This must put an end to Putin’s quest for conquest. He has gone for one country after another who stood alone with their little militaries and lost parts or all of their countries. The world couldn’t help Poland to survive.  We must help Ukraine. Putin’s next target is Moldavia where he controls about twenty percent already. 

The Good Ole’ Days

11 Wednesday Sep 2024

Posted by in Luddite

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                I’m not a Luddite (look it up) but life was a lot less scary in the 1960s and 1970s when we were only concerned with a nuclear war with the USSR. Politicians curried favor with voters and lied some. They seldom went overboard with name calling making campaigns much more civilized. Not one in a thousand knew about carbon dioxides’ effect on climate.

                Imagine; there were no cell phones, I pads, or computers to spread all the fabrications and lies proliferating the internet today. The social media and internet games occupy most of millions of people’s lives.               

                The National Rifle Association was a low key organization concerned with gun safety for hunters and kids. That was before the radicals took over.

                Drugs were mainly heroin and marijuana which had less than a fifth of the strength of today’s legal weed. Now, fentanyl kills tens of thousands a year.

                We were concerned about epidemics of measles and chicken pox and not COVID and all the diseases being brought in by Jet passengers. Tobacco causing cancer is just getting attention.

                Some areas of the world were having long term crop reverses causing starvation for millions. The United States was sending millions of tons of grain to feed them. Areas of this country were so destitute the Johnson administration created the Great society to help the poor to survive. Today we have people who look at helping people as wrong and should be stopped.

                 Then the world’s population was over three billion and soon it will be three times that. We are over 340 million and using up the normal resources it took billions of years to make when the planet was formed. Then we didn’t see the damage we were doing and now, people don’t seem to care.

Nobody knows where runaway technology will lead, says a Luddite.