About that proposed Carbon Tax ...

You’ve been hearing lately about a proposed Carbon Tax.  With Democrats taking over the House in 2019, you’ll hear a lot more. 

It’s being presented as a new solution to slow down global warming.  It’s also been said it’s an efficient and revenue-neutral way to wean us off fossil fuels. 

Some have even claimed it will put more money in consumers’ pockets.

Here’s a bit of perspective on what it’s really all about …

More than 40 years ago I wrote a high-end newsletter focused on energy policy and legislation for about 10,000 key decision makers at big industrial energy users here and abroad.  For six years I covered energy-related legislation and energy technologies from fossil fuels to geothermal to solar to coal gasification to laser fusion and more.

Back then there was a push for renewable energy forms over oil – not because of concerns about pollution or global warming (since we were actually in a cycle of “global cooling” then), but because America was so dependent on foreign sources for petroleum.

Think OPEC and the oil embargo.  Think gasoline rationing.   

It was considered a “national security” issue.  We needed long-term alternatives to oil or we’d be forever beholden to Middle East dictators like the Saudis. Alarmists claimed America was running out of its own oil reserves and soon there would be no more American oil to extract.    

In short, we were screwed.  We needed to something now, right now, or we’d all be huddled in the dark and the cold in the very near future.  Seriously, that was threat. 

The big push then was on solar.  It was “free.”  It was clean.  As long as the sun came out it was there every day for the taking.  With enough windmills and solar panels, we could produce enough energy to replace oil or coal-fired utility plants.  We could stop building risky nuclear power plants.  And the electricity we produced could power clean-energy electric cars.

Mind you, this was 40 years ago. But doesn’t it sound familiar today? 

Best of all, you could produce all the power you needed for your home without relying on monopolistic public utilities or oil companies.  Just put solar panels on your house or business. 

I saved that tidbit for last because it really was the unspoken goal of the solar theology – you could put the greedy oil companies and public utilities out of business with solar. You could take away their power over you by becoming your own energy producer. Hell, you could make them pay you for extra power you generated instead of always paying them.   

For the true solar zealots, it was all about taking down “the man.” And making a buck.   

Of course, the high priests of solar and other alternatives back then conveniently ignored both fundamental economics and basic physics. They still do today.

People will always do what’s in their own economic best interest. If electricity produced from burning oil or natural gas is cheaper than from windmills or solar-panel farms, it wins in the marketplace. If it’s cheaper to heat your home or business with oil or natural gas than with solar panels, oil or natural gas win.  If it’s cheaper to buy and easier to operate an automobile or a truck powered by gasoline or diesel than an all-electric vehicle, gasoline and diesel win.   

Hence the Carbon Tax.  The only way fossil-fuel opponents can make solar or other alternatives appear economically attractive without subsidies is if they can artificially raise the price of fossil fuels for consumers and businesses dramatically. The Carbon Tax would do that. 

That’s the plan. It’s always been the plan.  It’s not about saving the planet; it’s about making fossil fuels more expensive.  It’s also about a new money grab on false promises. The beneficiaries of the Carbon Tax won’t be consumers – because a tax on fossil fuels is a tax consumers will ultimately pay.

Politicians and bureaucrats will collect the tax and then dole it out, after taking a cut for themselves, to favored constituencies. Think Solyndra and other green-energy money-sucking boondoggles.  Think also of fat-cat leftist billionaires like Tom Steyer and others who hold big stakes in alternative energy companies. And also remember hypocrites like Al Gore who plan to make millions, perhaps billions, trading Carbon Tax offsets.

Meanwhile, as they all get richer consumers will pay more for everything. Count on it.   

I laughed the other night when one lobbyist on TV said consumers would financially benefit from the Carbon Tax.  How?  They’d get money back in rebates from the government to offset higher fuel prices, he said. In fact, consumers would get more money back than the difference in the higher prices they’d pay.  And that cash transfer would help boost the economy.

Yeah, right. Sure … that’s believable.     

We don’t have an oil or natural gas shortage anymore.  Honestly, we never did.  Despite drilling more wells in America than the rest of the world combined, two-thirds of all the oil we found here was still in the ground and there was ample gas trapped in shale. 

We just needed new technologies to get both out at a profit. And these arrived.    

With fracking and other enhanced recovery tools it became economically sound to go after all that oil and natural gas.  Supplies went way up and prices came down. So much for the predicted fossil-fuel-shortage apocalypse.  At the same time, natural gas is now so cheap – and burns so clean – it’s powering utility plants and reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. Automobile and truck engines are also more fuel efficient and clean. 

Then why do we need a Carbon Tax to reduce use of fossil fuels?   

The answer is deceptively simple:  the economic breakeven for solar and other alternatives has always been like chasing the horizon. It’s always “so close”; but it’s been the same promise for more than 40 years.  That’s because market forces hold down fossil fuel prices and cleaner burning and higher efficiency technologies like hybrid engines keep improving. Even when oil and gas prices do go up the cost of making and shipping solar devices – like wind turbines and photovoltaic panels – goes up as well because both are very energy intensive and not very efficient power producers.   

Without government subsidies – like tax credits to encourage solar and other “renewables,” or tax penalties to discourage fossil fuel use – the needle never moves. And once any subsidies are removed, solar power or electric cars don’t make economic sense for most people. 

Rich people, who don’t need the subsidies anyway, will drive a Tesla or Chevy Volt to show how virtuous they are, forgetting entirely that the electricity they’re using came from a nuclear, coal, natural gas or oil-fired utility. Where do they think that electricity came from?  Their Tesla or Volt? Or maybe some magic socket? 

Politicians like incenting consumers to use alternatives to fossil fuels. It feels good, and shows they are "doing something" about helping the environment, but it doesn’t make much economic sense in the long run.  Or environmental sense.  It’s make-believe. 

If you give people $7500 for buying an all-electric car, what's accomplished?  Yes, they won’t use gasoline as much, but they’ll pay for electricity.  That electricity will likely be produced by burning fossil fuels. And oh, by the way, transmitting electricity to their garage robs 70% of its efficiency.

But won’t goosing demand for all-electric cars via subsidies create economies of scale and lower prices for future electric cars?  Nope. GM just announced it’s discontinuing its Chevy Volt because of disappointing sales, even with the subsidies. Instead it will retool for a hybrid.

That's because, except for the rich and the virtue signalers, as long as oil and natural gas are so cheap nobody really wants an all-electric car that can only go 200 miles before it needs to be charged overnight.  No ordinary consumers want the upfront expense to install solar photovoltaic panels that take 30 years – the average life of their roof anyway – to start to hit economic breakeven, if then.    

All-electric cars and solar will only take off when they make economic sense on their own without subsidies or artificially raising the prices of oil and gas. 

Remember that when Democrats and the left start pushing the Carbon Tax.

The Carbon Tax will only make some rich people richer and the rest of us poorer. It can’t overturn the basic laws of supply and demand nor spur new technology to make alternatives cheaper and more efficient.  It’s just another money grab wrapped in virtuous clothing. 

Now, that's funny ...

Don’t hear that much anymore, do you? 

You can thank the political correctness movement.  The PC police – you know, the killjoys who want to ensure that no one, nowhere is offended by anything. Especially a joke.   

Because jokes can hurt. It’s not right to repeat, much less laugh at, jokes that might hurt. You never know when you risk offending someone. So, no jokes allowed.

Unless, of course, you’re mocking Trump, Melania, Christians, Pence, Republicans, white people, conservatives, or anyone with a religious belief. Then anything goes; it’s fine – and funny. 

There are other rules, however. They also depend on who you are.  

Today if you’re black you can make fun of anyone, even other blacks, except gay blacks – that’s not allowed. Gay people can mock any straight people, but straight people of any race can’t make jokes about anybody who might be LGBTQIAPK (that covers a lot of ground, look it up). 

Gay conservatives – and there are some – are stuck in the same rut as white conservatives and can’t make fun of anybody. That would be offensive.   

Just thought I’d lay out the new rules as I see them.  But you already knew them, right?  We’re all tiptoeing around subjects to stay politically correct. We live in fear of telling a joke in a crowd that goes over like a fart at a funeral. 

That’s too bad.  I’ve always loved a good joke.  Most of us still do. Yet everyone’s too afraid these days to tell a great joke, or even laugh at something that’s clearly funny. 

Humor is about incongruity, the things in life that make no sense, and also about making fun of stereotypical situations – in short, about the things that make us all fallible humans. Especially when it’s about ourselves and our everyday lives; self-deprecating humor is often the funniest. 

Humor is also about stripping away pretensions.  Humbling the haughty.  Poking fun at the powerful. But most of all, knocking the arrogant and self-righteous off their high horse.  

Ridicule, sarcasm, and the well-timed joke are valuable weapons in bringing the mighty down to earth and leveling the playing field.  Humor has always been an equal opportunity offender and a healthier way to vent frustration than physical violence.   

It’s been that way since the dawn of time in every culture, every society, and every nation. Archeologists constantly find written or visual jokes dating back thousands of years. Some are quite crude bathroom humor, and quite graphic.  Others deal with sexual preferences or performance. Some impugn the character of politicians, other ethnic groups, and other religions. Some even make fun of particular gods and myths.   

And I’ll bet in their day these were all considered hilarious.  In bad taste at times, I’m sure, but probably had their audiences laughing their ancient asses off. 

There’s nothing wrong with humor.  Even when it’s at someone else’s expense.  And it’s perfectly okay to laugh at whatever you find funny.  Doubt that? 

Tell me honestly that seeing some arrogant jerk take a pratfall isn’t funny.  Or that the famous pix of Chris Christie in the beach chair isn’t hilarious.  Or Clint Eastwood’s joke in the movie Gran Torino about “a Mexican, a Jew and a colored guy walk into a bar …” wasn’t, either. Tell me you’ve never laughed at Robin Williams doing standup. Or Chris Rock doing standup, or in his video “How to avoid getting your ass kicked by the police.”  Or Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles.  Or a website I really miss called Regretsy ("Where DIY meets WTF") that mocked silly "handmade" items people were trying to sell on Etsy.  

Or whatever is often obviously in bad taste but still obviously funny to you. 

You’re forgiven for being human and having a sense of humor.  It’s okay. 

It’s the people who have no sense of humor that should worry us. 

They need to get a life instead of trying to ruin ours. 

Lavrentiy Beria and Robert Mueller …

The two have much in common. True, Beria was the longest serving head of Stalin’s secret police and Mueller is the former head of the FBI, yet they share one thing in common.

And based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s a big thing. 

Beria is often quoted as saying: “Show me the man and I’ll find the crime.”  Isn’t that what Mueller is doing in his role as head of the current Special Counsel Investigation?

Here in America we normally require there be a crime before we investigate. Mueller and his team have flipped that and are apparently following Beria’s philosophy.  They are targeting individuals first and trying to find the crimes second.  This isn’t how it’s supposed to work. 

They are targeting Trump as their end game. That much is perfectly clear.  They also don’t care how they get him.  That’s also clear.  They have the entire justice apparatus to help them, along with cheerleading from Democrats and the media. It’s an awesome array of power.   

So far Mueller and his team have uncovered crimes that have nothing directly implicating Trump in an actual crime.  Bad judgement on Trump’s part, perhaps, but not a crime. 

They hope that terrorizing anybody associated with Trump with threats of financial ruin and lengthy jail time will get someone, somewhere frightened enough to incriminate Trump in a major crime.  Almost every day there’s a news story about someone Trump knows – a former lawyer, a Trump campaign associate, a Trump donor, someone Trump had sex with, someone who had business dealings with Trump or his companies before he took office, and others – who has revealed details to Mueller’s team that tie Trump to some possible crime. 

But so far, despite all the breathless reporting, there’s been no “there” there. 

Sure, a bunch of Trump supporters and hangers-on have been subjected to the wrath of Mueller’s team.  Some have copped pleas to past crimes that have nothing to do with Trump or his election. Some have been convicted of lying to Congress or the FBI, or both, on matters not related to Trump, even though whether they actually intentionally lied is questionable. Some, like Cohen, have blamed Trump for illegal acts they may have committed.  And every day the media reports that the noose is tightening around the neck of Donald J. Trump and pushing him toward inevitable impeachment.   

Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, has even said that Trump may be the first President in years to face jail time when he leaves office. 

What Mueller, Democrats, never-Trumpers like Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, and the media won’t admit is they have zero chance of removing Trump from office before his term’s up. Democrats don’t have the votes in Congress to impeach him, even after the midterms.  They’d need two thirds of the Senate to convict him of an impeachable offense, and that’s never going to happen. 

As far as Trump going to jail, forget about that, too.  His cabinet invoking the 25^th Amendment to force him out – something talking heads at CNN and MSNBC, as well as geniuses like Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, have pushed for – isn’t going to happen, either.   

Trump may not be their idea of a President – in fact, they hate him with a passion that borders on insanity – but they can’t kick him out before his term expires. Just not going to happen.  To believe otherwise is a fever dream. The best they can hope for is to damage him so much he doesn’t get re-elected in 2020.  And even that’s a long shot. 

They’ll continue to vent their frustration.  Mueller will continue to torture anyone he can to try to make his two years of investigations and the millions he’s spent yield something of substance. Even though he knows, as all torturers know, that with enough pain and pressure anyone will eventually say whatever you want them to say, whether it’s true or not.  

Beria knew that.  Mueller and his team know it as well. 

Mueller and his team are using Beria’s tactics, plain and simple.  I don’t know if he’s pissed because he got passed over for FBI Director by Trump. I don’t know if he’s pissed because his buddy James Comey got canned by Trump. 

I honestly can’t figure out his motives, except to get Trump at all costs. 

It’s a sad time for our justice system when a murderous monster like Beria is a de facto role model for how we now conduct investigations. 

It’s also a sad reflection on who we’ve allowed ourselves to become as a nation. 

We should all be appalled. 

Until The Wall gets built ...

Trump wants $5 billion for The Wall.  Congress is only willing to give him $1.5 billion. With Democrats in control of the House in 2019 I’d be surprised if they budget anything for it. 

The question then becomes not when we build The Wall, but will we ever? 

I’m not counting on The Wall ever being built. 

But I have some other suggestions to stem illegal immigration. 

Almost nobody wants to deal with both sides of the illegal immigration question. And there clearly are two sides.  One side is why illegals want to come here.  The other side is why elements in our country keep encouraging illegal immigration. 

The common thread is money.  It’s really that simple. 

Those trying to enter and stay in our country illegally want to make more money; they have little to no interest in becoming citizens, learning English, or assimilating into our society. They aren’t seeking asylum – they simply want better paying jobs and access to free benefits here.    

They aren’t “yearning to be free,” but yearning to enjoy the privileges of a U.S. citizen without the hassle and expense of becoming one through the proper process.

Their lack of interest in becoming a full-fledged participant in the melting pot tradition of the United States also makes them somewhat unique among most immigrant classes in U.S. history. Most prior classes of immigrants wanted the better life the U.S. offered as well, but they also wanted to be part of the American experience by becoming citizens.     

Not this group.  It’s a game to them. See how long you can beat the system; if you can do it long enough without getting caught, you can win. Bring your family along or start one here and after a few years you’re almost guaranteed to find some judge who will give you a pass to stay. 

Even if you get caught and sent back – which is rare – just come back again and start over – the game is rigged in your favor.  Especially if your kids get born here; that’s the golden ticket.   

Those who want more illegals here are also playing a game.

Businesses are the dominant players, from the ag industry to food service, hospitality and construction.  They are all in favor of more illegal immigration.  Illegals don’t demand as much from employers; they’ll work cheaper and are more willing to do less desirable tasks, too. 

Big city politicians and bureaucrats are also big players.  They want more illegal immigrants to boost their resident populations to get more Federal funding and legislative representation based on simple headcounts, rather than citizen counts. 

Again, it’s all about money.

What’s the solution? How do we minimize illegal immigration without The Wall? How can we realistically address and overcome the forces driving illegal immigration?  

First, we have to remove the incentives for illegal immigrants to try to come here.  At the same time, we need to step up punishment for any and all employers who employ illegal immigrants. If we do both we’ll be on the road to solving illegal immigration. 

Everyone knows who is here illegally.  Our Federal government, state and local governments, public school administrators, and business owners all know precisely who is here illegally. The assertion that no one knows for sure is patently ridiculous. As even advocates for illegals acknowledge, if anyone actually wanted to round up illegals everyone knows exactly who and where they are.  

So it would be easy enough to deny Federal benefits to illegal immigrants.

Before anyone claims illegals are already barred from getting government benefits, get real. Their kids are going to our public schools. Their families are getting food stamps. They're taking advantage of a variety of programs.  And some illegals are ballsy enough to fraudulently claim the Earned Income Tax Credit with the IRS – a program designed for low-income citizens – and, get this, the IRS has discovered it already paid out billions to them. 

The sticky part of denying benefits is what to do about children born here to illegals. At birth they are automatically U.S. citizens via the Constitution, regardless of Trump’s assertion otherwise. As U.S. citizens they are entitled to all the benefits afforded other citizens. 

But their parents aren’t.  What would their parents do?  Would they opt to stay with benefits – and public education – only for their U.S.-born children?  Or would they decide to pack it in and head back to the motherland? 

I don’t know. And frankly, I don’t care. The message sent is the important part. 

The reality is we’ll never be able to deport the 11-20 million people already here illegally.  Nor could we ever successfully apply these conditions to all of them.  But if potential illegal immigrants knew they’d never be able to collect government benefits or send their foreign-born kids to our public schools, I think that would be a powerful disincentive to coming here. 

The biggest disincentive of course would be to dry up potential jobs.  We need to crack down on bogus Social Security numbers.  In addition, we need to mandate that every employer– no matter how big or small – with a Federal tax ID must use the E-Verify system to vet all present employees and anyone they plan to hire for permanent or part-time jobs.

If any business then gets caught still employing illegals after a reasonable grace period, fine them $1000 for every single one.  No exceptions. 

If big businesses have repeated violations just revoke any Federal contracts, subsidies, or tax credits they currently get and prohibit them from bidding on any future Federal contracts for a period of five years. That would get their attention. For smaller ag-related businesses such as family farms, and for other seasonal businesses, we need to take away their excuse for hiring illegals by coming up with a manageable guest-worker program for temporary legal employment; the key word there being “temporary.”

If we were serious about stemming illegal immigration these ideas would work. 

Without The Wall. And for a lot less. 

In fact, we don’t actually need to implement any of these all the way. The simple threat they would pose would make people thinking of coming here illegally think twice. 

That may be enough.