Ozone levels in Maricopa County are lower today than they were 20 years ago. And the reality is that most of the ozone currently in the region is either due to natural events or coming from China. But you won’t hear facts like that from the Left. Instead, they’d rather hatch a scheme to enforce their climate change agenda on the American people, and one of their biggest targets in the past year has been Arizona. Now, after failing to convince our state to ban gas cars and gas stoves, the Sierra Club is attempting to use the courts to force this agenda upon us.
An Impossible Standard
Much of this began in September 2022 when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reclassified Maricopa County as a moderate nonattainment area of ozone limits under the Clean Air Act. This basically means that, according to the EPA, Maricopa County’s ozone levels are too high and therefore our state—including its citizens, motorists, and businesses—must be forced to adopt ozone control measures. Failure to comply with these measures could mean fines, penalties, or the withholding of federal transportation dollars for Arizona.
Of course, what they won’t tell you is that the main reason our ozone levels are too high isn’t because there are more cars on the road or Arizonans like trying new recipes on their gas stoves. The main reason our ozone levels are too high is because the federal government moved the goal posts back in 2015 when the EPA dropped its acceptable ozone levels from 75ppb to 70ppb…
In a speech following 9/11, President Bush assured us that in spite of this terrorist attack, all humans deep in their hearts long for freedom and brotherhood. It’s a comforting sentiment, but it’s not true.
Radical Islamists openly proclaim their disdain for freedom as another decadent Western value. Iranian street crowds commonly chant “Death to America.” They are deadly serious. Radicalized Muslims think and behave so radically different than we do that we keep dangerously misjudging them and making massive blunders in our adversarial dealings with them (think Iran nuclear deal).
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a leading Muslim reformer, recently explained in the pages of the Arizona Republic that not all Muslims are Islamists. Some are moderate, even members of secular political movements such as the Iranian Women’s Revolution. But Islamists are the dominant side of the House of Islam, in part due to their massive financing by oil-rich Persian Gulf tribes. This allows them to control Islamic propaganda and education.
For Islamists, the sole purpose of life is complete submission to the will of Allah, as interpreted by their imams and scholars. Unfortunately for the world, what Allah wants is nothing short of complete domination, the establishment of a hegemonic caliphate and the subjugation of all non-Muslims.
Thus, the life of an Islamist is an unceasing war or “jihad” in pursuit of this ultimate goal. No boundaries are acknowledged in this quest. Kidnapping, beheading, rape, murder of innocent civilians, including their own, torture and atrocities of all kinds are not even deemed regrettable but are applauded.
These Islamists don’t fight wars for traditional reasons. They don’t battle for independence, territory, resources, or national pride. Their single goal is annihilation or subjugation of their enemies, which the Quran defines as all non-believers, especially Jews.
The problematic response of America and the West to this religion-based violence is appeasement and accommodation. We can solve our differences with talks! Surely if they understood how much we are willing to concede to bring matters to a peaceful conclusion, they would work with us.
Bad idea. To the Islamist warlords, appeasement is merely a sign of weakness. It’s a green light to ramp up the aggression.
Anthony Blinken’s trip to the Middle East to beg for a cease-fire was a telling fool’s errand. It undercut our ally Israel, which is in a bilateral existential war with radical Islamists. It gives Hamas a chance to rest, recruit, and rearm. Moreover, it has zero chance of bringing about a more immediate or favorable resolution of hostilities.
Our current American leadership appears incapable of comprehending the potential mortal danger we are in. They want to believe the “bad” Muslims are only a tiny minority. They think that if we can only defeat Hamas or Al-Qaeda or whatever terrorist organization is currently rampaging, they will surrender and all will be well.
It’s not just Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran we are fighting, but an entire global mindset, a medieval anti-western ideology of evil. For each specific foe we defeat, there are always others to replace them. Jihadists actually welcome martyrdom because it assures hero status and a better afterlife.
Americans need to understand also that an important part of jihad – the imperative to eventually kill or convert – is subversion from within. Millions of immigrant Muslims worldwide have no intention of assimilating. They are taught that their duty is not to learn the ways of their new country but to infiltrate their culture and demand accommodation.
They are seeing some success. Young Americans who are the product of our inept educational system deny that Israel has the right to defend itself. Nearly half agree that the horrific war crimes of Hamas were justified. Tens of thousands fill the streets chanting for the elimination of the Jewish state. The students weren’t born with this mindset. They learned it from radicalized authority figures.
We Americans deserve to be proud of our history as a fair, compassionate member of the international community. But being a good neighbor shouldn’t require suicide.
We may not wish to be at war with Islamism, but they’re waging deadly war against us. Meanwhile, Americans fret about climate change and Islamophobia. Time to wake up.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
For several years, Arizonans have faced a threat of radical renewable energy mandates being imposed on our grid. In 2018, the voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have required utilities to generate 50% of their energy with “renewables” by 2030. Then, in 2021, the Arizona Corporation Commission considered, and rejected, a 100% renewable mandate completely banning fossil fuel generation by 2050. But now, the utilities have voluntarily committed themselves to these goals, known as “Net Zero by 2050”, under the broader requirements of their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments.
It didn’t make a ton of news in the United States media, but a new study published by the International Energy Agency in mid-October emphasizes the enormous potential roadblock to a successful energy transition posed by a projected need to refurbish and double capacity on global electricity grids.
The study, titled, “Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions,” advises governments that investments in expanding and refurbishing power grids must “nearly double by 2030 to over USD 600 billion per year after over a decade of stagnation at the global level, with emphasis on digitalising and modernising distribution grids.” That level of new investment in just this single piece of the overarching plans for a complete re-tooling of the global energy system is not currently a part of existing policies around the world. Given that most developed countries are already saddled with overwhelming public debt and the lack of means in developing countries, the prospect for a doubling of current grid investments seems dubious at best.
But, if anything, the goals laid out in this IEA missive only become more implausible as one reads through the list. Perhaps the most extraordinary among them is the agency’s estimate that reaching the UN’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 would require the refurbishment, upgrading and build-out of 80 million kilometers of new transmission lines by 2040. For those who struggle with conversion factors, 80 million km is roughly the equivalent of 50 million miles, or 2,000 times the Earth’s circumference.
That is the equivalent of all the transmission capacity built by mankind in history, and the IEA says it must be accomplished in just 17 years for this energy transition to succeed. IEA notes that achieving this extraordinary goal – among other improbable propositions laid out in the report – will require “secure supply chains and a skilled workforce,” neither of which currently exists.
How will this massive expansion in necessary skilled workers be achieved? The report doesn’t really say.
How will those supply chains – almost all of which are currently dominated by a single country, China – be secured? The report says only “Governments can support the expansion of supply chains by creating firm and transparent project pipelines and by standardising procurement and technical installations.” Sounds easy, right? But the U.S. congress has a hard time just agreeing what day of the week it is: The thought that it will suddenly develop the ability to engage in that sort of complex thinking and legislating in a constructive way is absurdly unlikely.
The report then somewhat hilariously points to another elephant residing in the energy transition’s living room, noting that governments all over the world need to streamline their energy permitting processes to accommodate this massive grid expansion. Again, using the U.S. congress as an example, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has spent the last 19 months trying to put together enough votes to approve legislation that would address just a small portion of what is really needed in this realm and had no success, with no real prospects of that changing until, at best, 2025, when the next congress will be sworn into office.
Think about this in the context of a story I wrote in June about the TransWest Express transmission project, which had finally received its final permits from the federal government. This is a line that is about 1300 miles long, designed to carry electricity generated by Wyoming wind farms to customers on the West coast. The punch line on this single transmission project is that the permitting process took 17 years to achieve. Assuming no new litigation arises, it will now take about another 3 years to complete and place into service.
Like so many of the work products published by the IEA in recent years, this report’s findings seem to be motivated mostly to help achieve political goals based mainly on wishful thinking, with little consideration given to long-ingrained dynamics at play in the real world. Even if overwhelming debt burdens and resource and supply chain challenges could be just wished away, the political impediments to achieving these unrealistic goals seem destined to force a day of reckoning for the entire energy transition plan.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
You know something is seriously wrong with our nation’s universities when the ultra-liberal Bill Maher vigorously advised our youth, on his nationally syndicated cable TV show, to stay far away from college because “it just makes you stupid.” Clearly the majority of Americans agree with Bill’s denunciation, for according to a survey by Gallup, just 14 percent of Americans—and only 11 percent of business leaders—strongly agreed that graduates have the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in the workplace.
Charles J. Sykes, author of Failed U:TheFalse Promise of Higher Education, succinctly describes the circus-like campus atmosphere that is currently indulged by university students:
The four-year or longer sojourn in the groves of academe is a kaleidoscopic experience of classrooms, frats, lectures, keg parties, all-nighters, political correctness, hookups, alcohol, athletic spectacle, and the occasional intellectual insight.
At some point in their college experience, students are thankful that their parents have only the vaguest idea what they have been paying for on campus—not just the extracurricular drunken feasts but also the bizarre cultural intolerances, the obsessive rituals of conformity, the absentee faculty, teaching assistants unable to speak English, the hair-trigger racial, cultural, gender, and political sensitivities, and the junk courses with their effort-free As.
To drive this point home, a progressive college preparatory book entitled: The Her Campus Guide to College Life (please note the absence of a Him in the title), unwittingly exposed the amoral world that is commonly experienced nowadays on a college campus near you. The book’s contents are filled with wicked subtitles:
PREVENTING THEFT • PROTECTING AGAINST INTRUDERS • STAYING SAFE AT PARTIES AND BARS • BEING SAFE WHILE HOOKING UP • STAYING SAFE LATE AT NIGHT • PREVENTING SEXUAL ASSAULT • STALKERS • EATING DISORDERS IN COLLEGE • DRINKING • SMOKING • VAPING • DRUGS • STRESS • ANXIETY • DEPRESSION • EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HAVING SAFE SEX • HOOK-UPS • SEX • ROTTEN ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS • FRENEMIES • TOXIC FRIENDSHIPS • ROOMMATE CONTRACTS
What responsible parent would knowingly want to send her beautiful child to this depraved environment for four years? But if not college, then what? Well, realize that there are over 12,000 occupations to choose from, yet the typical university offers roughly 76 majors—just 76 career choices. It’s this vast world of 12,000 occupations that is largely ignored by high school guidance counselors, who for decades have forcefully issued a dire edict: any high school graduate who fails to attain the right to walk the hallowed halls of a university will be banned from achieving the American Dream. The lie worked. College was tattooed on nearly everyone’s lips, and the nation’s parents suddenly took issue with the son or daughter who wanted to join the ranks of the “washouts” who were enrolled in a “lowly” trade school.
So now, the country is inundated with unskilled college graduates who are recipients of useless diplomas, a mountain of debt, and a seething hatred toward capitalism and Old Glory. Nevertheless, because of a staunch belief in the college “dream,” a young alumnus will proudly reference to potential employers the degree she earned five years ago in Women’s Studies from State University, even though she is currently living in her childhood bedroom while earning $13.65 an hour as a coffee shop barista. Meanwhile, due to a huge shortage of skilled trade professionals, millions of open and high-paying trade positions will be left vacant. The nation urgently needs more security, fire, and service technicians, solar energy technicians, 3D printing technicians, pipe fitters, sales representatives, plumbers, pile-driver operators, drone pilots, stonemasons, diesel mechanics, dental hygienists, cybersecurity experts, glaziers, physical therapy assistants, reinforcing iron and rebar workers, pilots, and elevator mechanics—who can earn $50 an hour without a college degree!
In reality, the land of opportunity is found in over 30,000 apprenticeship programs that will pay a student to learn a blue- or white-collar skill. It is also found in trade schools, cyber bootcamps, sales, community colleges with corporate alliances, mentorships, entrepreneuring, and jobs offered to high school graduates. So long as a young adult can solve every day math problems, can read, write and speak well, it is within this vast world of career training opportunities—offered outside the college arena—that young adults will find the positions in life that will be both financially and spiritually rewarding.
For example, we had a deeply shy young man come to our home to repair our refrigerator ice making machine. After nine months of training, and 14 months of work experience, he is now earning $72,000 annually at the age of 22. Then, too, the new CEO of Costco started working for the company as a forklift driver. And the high school dropout John Marriot, founder of Marriot Hotels, started his career as a long john salesman to lumberjacks in the Pacific northwest. There are millions of similar inspirational stories that serve to utterly destroy the college-is-superior myth—over and over and over again.
In summation, what do each of the following trade school programs have in common: Plumbing, Ship Building, Dental Hygienist, HVAC, and Surgical Technician? Well, they each provide a graduate with a real, high-paying job skill that will serve him or her for life. Now, let’s pick five Harvard University majors that are deemed by its governing board to be worthy of a $217,000 tuition price tag (excluding room and board and other fees): Folklore and Mythology, African and African American Studies, History of Art and Architecture, International Relations, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Seriously, what job skills does a Folklore and Mythology graduate bring to the table? And couldn’t this subject be mastered inexpensively simply by reading $300 worth of textbooks? And how are these graduates going to afford to pay a $2,500 monthly student loan payment while possibly earning $100 a day for regaling entertaining folklore stories at a Renaissance fair?
So, Bill Maher was spot on when he emphatically declared: “Don’t go to college!” For their sake, and the sake of our country, may our young adults heed his clarion warning.
Bruce Goodmansen is the president of Fire Up the Soul, LLC, and the author of the bestselling book: 100% Success Without College, which can be reviewed at anythingbutcollege.com. He is often invited to speak at conservative and homeschooling events.
K-12 schools in Arizona are currently flush with cash. Between billions in increased state spending from the legislature, COVID cash from the feds, and declining student populations, district school spending is at an all time high. But next week, voters across Arizona will decide the fate of 23 bond requests from schools that total a historic $3.5 billion.
This level of borrowing being sought by local school districts is both unwise and unnecessary, especially given the large amounts of money that have been pumped into the system. State funding has increased so quickly in the last 36 months that the legislature decided to override the constitutional spending limit the last two fiscal years. This is funding over and above the formulaic cap in the constitution that exists to protect taxpayers from runaway and unaccountable spending.
And contrary to what you probably hear from teachers’ unions and their sycophant friends in the media, lawmakers continue to increase school spending with every state budget. With all this new spending, district schools receive more money per student than ever before, and it’s not even close.
Not included in the state spending cap, however, are federal funds. And when schools were shut down during COVID, the federal government poured trillions of dollars into them. Many of the school districts asking their taxpayers to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds next week are still sitting on a pile of unspent COVID cash…
