A monthly review of climate, energy, and environmental policy issues
The UN’s Annual Climate Scam Party
The 27th annual Conference of Parties (COP 27) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held this November in beach-side resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The purpose of the meeting was to extract trillions of dollars from rich countries to pay “reparations” to “developing” countries which have been “victims of climate change.” The meeting was attended by about 45,000 people many of whom arrived by private jets. The attendees enjoyed sumptuous meals of red meat and shrimp. while saying the rest of us should eat bugs.
COP27 President, Sameh Shoukry declaring that they are “fair, balanced, and transparent in our approach.” However, the UN deliberately ignores forty years of advances in understanding the limitations of how atmospheric greenhouse gases influence earth’s temperatures. The UN’s own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “…have provided incontrovertible evidence that their representative scenarios are physically impossible.” Thus, none of their projections, forecasts, or long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns are based on laws of physics. (Source)
The UN IPCC is a political body, not a scientific one.
See: COP27: Meet The Financiers And Merchants Of Death.
And: Seven Ways Climate Reparations Are Absurd ☼
Where is the warming?
Shakedown: Biden Signs U.S. Taxpayers Up For Climate Reparations
The use of climate policy to soak Americans keeps getting worse, and the United Nation’s climate conference in Egypt ended with an agreement on a new fund to pay reparations to poor countries. Welcome to the latest climate shakedown.
Wealthy countries will now set up a fund to cover climate damage for the least developed countries. This will be financed from “a broad donor base” and “mosaic of solutions,” such as international development banks and taxes on aviation, shipping, and fossil fuels. Details about the reparations fund—such as which countries will pay, how much, and which countries will benefit—will be fleshed out over the next year. Next time Democrats control Congress, they will argue that the U.S. has an obligation to pay reparations, as they argued that the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate spending is necessary to meet the Paris commitments. Next time Democrats control Congress, they will argue that the U.S. has an obligation to pay reparations, as they argued that the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate spending is necessary to meet the Paris commitments.
This is separate from the $100 billion a year that rich countries have promised to help poor countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. (Read more) ☼
Big Climate Brother Coming Your Way (voluntary now, mandatory later)
From MasterResource, By Robert Bradley Jr.
“If alive today, F. A. Hayek would recognize and warn against the climate ‘road to serfdom.’ It is an evil that comes in steps, never in the whole. But the warning signs are increasing. It is time to expose and resist, politely but firmly.”
The climate crusade has no end point because it is futile. But the intellectual, political, media elite are not going to stop at failure. They will march on and on with the message that the public must sacrifice to save the earth. (Read more) ☼
Bad climate and energy policies continue to cause high prices, shortages of goods, and will be responsible for shortages of heating fuel this winter. Below are stories of real science, bad science, and stupid policy.
“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.” —George Washington (1795)
H L Mencken said decades ago, “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” ☼
CLIMATE SCIENCE
In physical science, physical evidence separates science fact from science fiction.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an extraordinary gas on this planet. Without it, all green life would cease. All complex life, which is dependent on green life, would cease. The EPA’s declaration that “the Administrator finds that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may reasonably be anticipated both to endanger public health and to endanger public welfare” is extraordinary. It requires extraordinary physical evidence. The EPA has none. Instead, it relies on the opinions of government functionaries who are generally ignorant of how science works.
(See: The Alarmist Claims Of Climate Doom Are Missing One Thing: Evidence)
The Dangers of Low Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations
by Craig D. Idso — November 1, 2022
CO2 literally is the “food” that sustains essentially all plants (and animals who consume plants, including humans) on the face of the Earth. And when that food supply is diminished, nature begins to diminish.
In my last post I shared the results of research findings demonstrating that rising atmospheric CO2 levels represent no current direct threat to human health and/or cognitive performance and decision making. Further, I explained that they present no realistic future threat either; for CO2 levels would need to increase some 36 times above the present concentration before they would even begin to pose a mild health concern.
That value (i.e., 15,000 ppm) will never occur, given it is a factor of ten above the approximate 1500 ppm atmospheric CO2 limit that scientists think is possible if society utilized all of the currently-known fossil fuel reserves on the planet.
But what about low CO2 concentrations? Might they pose a threat to humanity? In short, yes. The lower the CO2 concentration, the greater the risk. This certainly applies to net reductions in PPM, but it also applies to reductions in CO2 from government climate policies against market preferences for mineral energies, natural gas, coal, and oil. The more CO2 the better, in other words. (Read more) ☼
Facts and Lies about Cattle and Methane
by Walter Starck
The implementation of regulations and taxes intended to significantly reduce emissions of methane from livestock is unneeded, ineffective and based entirely on a highly misleading consideration of relevant scientific understanding. It amounts to a hypothetical solution to an imaginary problem and is being pursued for green votes in the name of virtue signaling, woke politics and publicity; not for any harm that can be either demonstrated or prevented. (Read more and scroll down for 7 pertinent facts) See also: Methane- the Irrelevant Greenhouse Gas (Link) ☼
Daily Sceptic Reports on Research Showing U.S. Warming is Exaggerated by 50 Percent
By Linnea Lueken
A recent post from The Daily Sceptic describes new research conducted by scientists seeking to accurately determine U.S. surface temperatures after the influence of the urban heat island effect is removed. The results revealed that the eastern United States has experienced 50 percent less warming over the last 50 years than official records indicate. This important research confirms what The Heartland Institute’s recent report, “Corrupted Climate Stations: The Official U.S. Surface Temperature Record Remains Fatally Flawed,” found that official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) temperature stations produce corrupted data due to their location in man-made hot spots. (Read more) ☼
Nitrous Oxide and Climate
by Gregory R. Wrightstone
Nitrous oxide (N20) has now joined carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in the climate alarm proponents’ pantheon of anthropogenic “demon” gases. In their view, increasing concentrations of these molecules are leading to unusual and unprecedented warming and will, in turn, lead to catastrophic consequences for both our ecosystems and humanity.
Countries around the world are in the process of greatly reducing or eliminating the use of nitrogen fertilizers based on heretofore poorly understood properties of nitrous oxide. Reductions of N2O emissions are being proposed in Canada by 40 to 45 percent and in the Netherlands by up to 50 percent. Sri Lanka’s complete ban on fertilizer in 2021 led to the total collapse of their primarily agricultural economy.
To provide critically needed information on N2O, the CO2 Coalition has published an important and timely paper evaluating the warming effect of the gas and its role in the nitrogen cycle. Armed with this vital information, policymakers can now proceed to make informed decisions about the costs and benefits of mandated reductions of this beneficial molecule.
This new paper (47 pages) joins previous CO2 Coalition reports on other greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane.
Key takeaways from the paper:
At current rates, a doubling of N2O would occur in more than 400 years.
Atmospheric warming by N2O is estimated to be 0.064°C per century.
Increasing crop production requires continued application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in order to feed a growing population. (Read more) ☼
Climate Alarmist Claim Fact Checks
by Joseph D’Aleo
Updated Nov. 17, 2022 (link)
CO2 is Innocent but Clouds are Guilty. New Science has Created a “Black Swan Event”**
by Charles Blaisdell PhD ChE
**From web sources: “,… in 1697 the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh discovered black swans in Australia, upending the belief” (that all swans were white) “and transforming how we understand the natural world. …the phrase “black swan event” came to refer to an event that suddenly proves something that was previously thought to be impossible.”
Our tax dollars have been at work with NASA for the last 20+ years putting satellites in orbit to detect and measure the “CO2 effect” on Global Warming, GW. After 20 years, the CERES satellite (and others) has discovered that cloud reduction is the major effect on GW for those 20 years. Two papers published in 2021 reach this conclusion. These new papers do claim some sign of CO2 effect (and other greenhouse gases) on GW; but the papers show the dominate effect on GW for those 20 years was the cloud reduction effect (albedo reduction- warming). (Read more 40 pages) ☼
CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:
by Jonathan DuHamel
Geologic evidence shows that Earth’s climate has been in a constant state of flux for more than 4 billion years. Nothing we do can stop that. Much of current climate and energy policy is based upon the erroneous assumption that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, which make up just 0.1% of total greenhouse gases, are responsible for “dangerous” global warming/climate change. Man-made carbon dioxide emissions have no significant effect on global temperature/climate. In fact, when there is an apparent correlation between temperature and carbon dioxide, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been shown to follow, not lead, changes in Earth’s temperature. All efforts to reduce emissions are futile with regard to climate change, but such efforts will impose massive economic harm to Western Nations. The “climate crisis” is a scam. U.N officials have admitted that their climate policy is about money and power and destroying capitalism, not about climate. By the way, like all planetary bodies, the earth loses heat through infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases interfere with (block) some of this heat loss. Greenhouse gases don’t warm the Earth, they slow the cooling.
For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:
A Review of the state of Climate Science
The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate
A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View
Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review
The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation
The “Social Cost of Carbon” Scam Revisited
ATMOSPHERIC CO2: a boon for the biosphere
Carbon dioxide is necessary for life on Earth
Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it
New study shows that carbon dioxide is responsible for only seven percent of the greenhouse effect
Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked
Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼
ENERGY
The EPA’s 7-Step Plan To Cripple America’s Power Grid
by Alex Epstein
We’re in an electricity crisis, with reliable power plants shutting down far faster than they are being built. And yet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to make things much worse with seven policies that gravely threaten 10-20% of our reliable capacity in the next seven years. A reliable grid is foundational to our quality of life. Our lives depend on ultra-reliable electricity for the refrigerators that preserve our food, the water treatment plants that keep our water drinkable, the air conditioning that keeps us cool, the factories that produce our goods, etc.
The root cause of the reliability crisis is simple: America is shutting down too many reliable power plants—plants that can be controlled to produce electricity when needed in the exact quantity required. And attempting to replace them with unreliable solar and wind. Since solar and wind can go near zero at any given time, using them as replacements for reliable power plants doesn’t work. The secret to the EPA getting away with wrecking our grid is to pass innocent-sounding “health” rules designed specifically to shut down as many coal plants as possible while denying the huge economic and health consequences of an unreliable electric grid.
The innocent-sounding names of the EPA’s seven-pronged attack on the grid:
1.“Coal Combustion Residuals” rule
2.“Good Neighbor” rule
3.“Regional Haze” rule
4.“Effluent Limitations Guidelines”
5.“Clean Energy” “replacement rule”
6.“Mercury and Air Toxics Standards”
7.New “PM 2.5” regulations
(Read more) ☼
Electric Cars: Inconvenient Facts, Part One (Watch video, 5minutes)
Part two (Watch video, 6 minutes) ☼
125 Ways the Biden Administration and Congress Have Made it Harder to Produce Oil & Gas
by Thomas J. Pyle
Joe Biden’s presidential administration and certain elements in Congress have a plan for American energy: make it harder to produce and more expensive to purchase. Since Biden took office, his administration and allies in Congress have taken over 125 actions deliberately designed to make it harder to produce energy here in America. A list of those actions appears below. A PDF of the full list is available to download here. ☼
5 Reasons to drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge instead of draining petroleum reserve
by Ben Lieberman
In response to continued high gasoline prices, President Joe Biden recently announced an extension of withdrawals of about 1 million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the nation’s emergency oil stockpile. We could be getting at least that much oil from additional domestic drilling. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) alone has the potential to provide up to 1 million barrels a day, but drilling there has been blocked by the Biden administration since Inauguration Day. Here are five reasons why ANWR is a superior source of oil to the SPR.
1. ANWR would provide additional oil, not borrowed oil that must be paid back
2. ANWR would supply oil for decades rather than months
3. ANWR generates revenues while the SPR costs them
4. Unlike the SPR, ANWR doesn’t strain existing infrastructure
5. Locals support ANWR drilling, but not SPR withdrawals (Read more) ☼|
Saving the world with lithium? Four times a week an e-bike battery catches fire in New York More deadly than man-made climate change
by Matthew Schuerman, NPR
Six people have died in New York this year so far due to house fires started by e-bikes.
Four times a week on average, an e-bike or e-scooter battery catches fire in New York City.
These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch,” said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department. “We’ve seen incidents where people have described them as explosive — incidents where they actually have so much power, they’re actually blowing walls down in between rooms and apartments.” As of Friday, the FDNY investigated 174 battery fires, putting 2022 on track to double the number of fires that occurred last year (104) and quadruple the number from 2020 (44). So far this year, six people have died in e-bike-related fires and 93 people were injured, up from four deaths and 79 injuries last year. (Source) ☼
America’s Energy Crisis is Mostly US Democrats’ Fault
by Alex Epstein
I don’t identify as a Republican or Democrat. But as an energy expert I must say this: had Democrats spent the last 3.5 years liberating US oil and gas investment, production, and transport instead of strangling them, energy would be far cheaper. America is experiencing our worst energy crisis since the 1970s. High oil prices are making driving expensive, while high natural gas prices are making heating and electricity far more expensive—above all in the Northeast, where some ratepayers might see prices more than two times last winter’s. (Read more) ☼
Energy group issues roadmap for House Republicans to boost US energy security
by Thomas Catenacci, Fox News
Power the Future, a leading energy industry group, published a report which it said could act as an energy policy roadmap for House Republicans when they take majority control of the chamber next year. The group, which represents the interests of energy industry workers nationwide, outlined 10 policy priorities for Republicans to pursue and areas where GOP leadership could conduct oversight and investigations into Biden administration policymaking. Power the Future argued a comprehensive energy agenda was vital to push back on President Biden’s climate policies which have hampered fossil fuel development. (Read more) ☼
Experts: In The Middle Of A Diesel Disaster, Biden Is Making Things Worse
by Jack McEvoy
The Biden administration has implemented policies that have hurt diesel production and caused stockpiles to hit their lowest levels since 2008.
The U.S. is facing a diesel shortage which is causing the Biden administration to consider taking action to shore up supplies as fuel refiners struggle to produce enough fuel to meet heavy demand.
Diesel supplies have become dangerously low due to recent refinery closures that have been exacerbated by the Biden administration’s regulations as well as increased fuel demand following the coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s an enormous tax and regulatory burden that the Biden administration has put on refining along with other industries. (Read more) ☼
Put Mining to Work Despite Objections From Greens
By Dan Ervin
It is past due time to ramp up domestic mining.
The move to electrify all sectors of the economy is increasing the demand for minerals, metals, and rare-earth elements used in the production of batteries, motors, and other electrical equipment that are used in products such as electric vehicles (EV). Also, common metals like iron, nickel, and copper are needed to expand the U. S. transmission system in order to move electricity generated with wind and solar assets which typically are in low electricity demand areas to areas of high demand.
The current regulatory environment requires companies that mine these minerals and metals to go through state and federal permit gauntlets and can take up to a decade. This regulatory process is ill-suited for the current domestic energy policy. (Read more) ☼
Learning All the Wrong Lessons From America’s Energy Crisis
By Jakob Puckett
From the beginning, the Biden administration has prioritized restricting access to the fuels that power nearly 80% of America’s economy and roughly three-quarters of American homes. Revoking permits for the long-embattled Keystone XL Pipeline was one of President Biden’s first executive orders, making it harder and more dangerous to transport Canadian fossil fuels to American refineries. This decision was all the more hypocritical when, weeks later, President Biden gave his approval of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany.
In a like manner, the Biden administration is helping speed up the closure of the refineries that turn oil into gasoline. Escalating biofuel mandates are signaling to refineries to close up shop, as blending levels are reaching unsustainably high levels. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) revoking of biofuel waivers for small refineries will only cause more refining capacity to buckle under those mandates’ costly weight. Gasoline and diesel refining capacity has been declining for decades, and is in no position to reverse course.
The Biden administration is simultaneously cracking down on drilling for the fuels that power everyday life. One quarter of America’s oil and gas is produced from federal property by way of leasing drilling rights to companies. However, the Biden administration recently cut onshore drilling leases by 80%, as well as notably curtailing offshore drilling. For the leases that were not cut, the Interior Department significantly increased royalty fees, making federal lands a less attractive drilling option, as well as allowing lawsuits to delay several already-purchased leases based on environmentally and economically squishy climate change metrics. (Read more) ☼
Costs of Wind and Solar Energy Are Skyrocketing
by John Hinderaker, Power Line
Advocates of wind and solar energy have argued that the cost of those energy sources would decline over time as they are more widely adopted. That never made any sense, and it has not proved true. In fact, the cost of both wind and solar energy is destined to continue rising sharply as the massive quantities of materials they require become more expensive as a result of increasing demand, driven by ill-advised (the politest adjective I can think of) government mandates and subsidies. The average cost of electricity generated by wind turbines has almost doubled in three years, and yet governments continue their irrational policies that can only drive the cost of power higher. The one thing that could make the situation catastrophically worse is if governments imposed drastic new demand on the electric power grid by making us all drive electric vehicles. But no, they could never be that stupid. Could they? (Source) ☼
Renewables Don’t Meet America’s Energy Needs — So Why The Taxpayer Subsidies?
by Taylor Tougaw, Daily Caller
Unsurprisingly, it appears that members of Congress have no idea how they are spending taxpayer dollars. The recently passed “Inflation Reduction Act” includes $369 billion in taxpayer funds for “green” energy technologies which will have little, if any, impact on the expansion of green tech. Despite billions of taxpayer subsidies toward these industries in the last 30 years, their adoption remains stagnant. In fact, only 3 percent of global energy comes from solar and wind combined. To members of Congress, the solution appears to be throwing more money at the issue. Unfortunately, no amount of money can overcome basic science. (Read more) ☼
Reality bites Biden’s Gulf of Mexico wind dreams
By Duggan Flanakin
Biden recently announced massive wind lease areas offshore from Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas. One is a 188,023-acre tract located 56 miles offshore from Lake Charles; the other is a 508,265-acre tract 24 nautical miles offshore from Galveston. While Louisiana’s Democrat Governor John Bel Edwards is ebullient about the economic prospects for offshore wind, his Texas counterparts are not.
Galveston (TX) state representative Mayes Middleton asserted that, “There are grave concerns about the serious harm that the proposed leases could have on the commercial and residential fishing industry, the maritime economy, the human environment, and Texas’ economic prosperity that need to be resolved before any lease should even be considered.”
(Read more) ☼
Coal Power Surges Amid Europe’s Energy Crisis (link)
ENVIRONMENT
As Green Policies Cause Energy Prices To Explode, Deforestation In Europe Accelerates
by P Gosselin
Skyrocketing fossil fuel energy prices are are driving the deforestation of Europe as citizens try to keep warm. It’s easy to argue that the “green” movement is causing much more environmental harm than good. High energy costs are leading to poverty, which in turn leads to less investment in environmental protection and nature conservation. Biodiversity-rich forests are being cleared away to make room for wind parks and people are increasingly burning wood to stay warm as an alternative to natural gas and heating oil. (Read more) ☼
Greenpeace: Recycling Plastics Doesn’t Work
by Douglas Andrews, Patriot Post
Better late than never, the environmental activist organization comes to a welcome conclusion.
Greenpeace has seen the light, or at least a glimmer of rationality. The group has issued a report accompanied by a press release headlined, “Plastic Recycling Is a Dead-End Street — Year After Year, Plastic Recycling Declines Even as Plastic Waste Increases.”
The Greenpeace report goes on to list why plastic recycling has been such a miserable failure:
Plastics are extremely difficult to collect
They’re virtually impossible to sort
They’re environmentally harmful to reprocess
They’re often made of and contaminated by toxic materials
They’re not economical to recycle
(Read more) ☼
MISCELLANEOUS
Free speech:
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong” -Voltaire
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” -George Orwell
Shakedown: Biden Signs U.S. Taxpayers Up For Climate Reparations
The use of climate policy to soak Americans keeps getting worse, and the United Nation’s climate conference in Egypt ended with an agreement on a new fund to pay reparations to poor countries. Welcome to the latest climate shakedown.
Ten Thousand Commandments 2022
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy at large.
The cost of government extends well beyond what Washington collects in taxes and the far greater amount it spends. Federal environmental, safety and health, social, and economic regulations and interventions affect the economy by hundreds of billions—even trillions—of dollars annually. This situation is compounded by—both sincere and exploitative—responses to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, the third major economic shock of the century, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis.
It is now a familiar pattern. Spending and regulatory interventions undertaken to relieve one economic crisis can become a floor for or even cause of a subsequent one, exacerbating the regulatory state’s propensity for self-preservation and growth.
Unlike on-budget spending, regulatory costs are largely obscured from public view, constituting a hidden tax. As the least disciplined aspect of government activity, regulation can be appealing to lawmakers. (Read the executive summary) (Download full document 150 pages)
Under Biden, Federal Agencies Have Become Climate Activists
by Kevin Stocklin
House Republicans produced a 1,000-page report on Nov. 4 detailing how the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have shifted their focus toward targeting conservative Americans who protest at abortion clinics and parents who protest at school board meetings. But the politicization of federal law enforcement is just the tip of the iceberg. Since Joe Biden assumed the presidency nearly two years ago, his administration has been relentless in redirecting virtually every federal agency toward activism for “climate and social justice” and aligning the federal government in lockstep with the corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement. Under this new regime, even the most technocratic U.S. agencies, such as the Federal Reserve, have taken up the ESG cause. (Read more) ☼
Biden regulations cost the economy $309B in first two years, up from Obama’s $204B
By Patrick Hauf | Fox News
Regulations issued during the first two years of the Biden administration cost the economy an estimated $309 billion, which is 50% more expensive than the first two years of the Obama administration and nearly eight times as expensive as rules released in all four years of the Trump administration.
Biden’s regulatory cost reflects the 443 final rules issued through late October 2022, which required roughly 193,000,000 hours of compliance paperwork across the nation, according to federal data collected by the American Action Forum.
At the same point in time under the Obama administration, 639 final rules had been issued that cost the economy $204 billion and required 80,000,000 hours of paperwork, less than half the time required under Biden.
The Trump administration released 500 final rules in its first two years that saved the economy an estimated $3.4 million, and took up just 500,000 hours of compliance time, the American Action Forum said. (Read more) ☼
Treasury Dept Flagged 93 Financial Transfers Between Biden Associates And A Chinese Investment Fund
by Laurel Duggan, Daily Caller
Biden-linked operatives allegedly exchanged $2,461,962.60 in total with the Shanghai firm through 93 wire transactions between 2014 and 2019, according to a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) obtained by House Oversight Republicans (Read more) ☼
POINTS TO PONDER
“A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.” —Thomas Jefferson (1823)
“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” —Will Rogers (1879-1935)
“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” —James Madison (1788)
“Let’s not forget, we’re all winners when D.C. is mired in gridlock; not only is it the most accurate representation of the national electorate’s mood but it means the system is working. … People who confuse and conflate the word ‘democracy’ with getting their way all the time are either frauds or fools.” —David Harsanyi
“Nothing is easier, or more emotionally satisfying, than blaming high prices on those who charge them, rather than on those who cause them.” —Thomas Sowell
END
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