People for the West -Tucson
Newsletter, October, 2020
PO Box 86868, Tucson, AZ 85754-6868
pfw-tucson@cox.net
Real environmentalism can go hand in hand with natural resource production, private property rights, and access to public lands
STATE OF THE UNION
The Heritage Foundation’s New Free ebook on the Electoral College
Key Takeaways:
Our system for electing the President was carefully crafted by the Framers and has worked successfully for over 200 years, protecting and nurturing our Republic.
The National Popular Vote Movement aims to circumvent the constitutional amendment process and manipulate the Electoral College out of existence.
Every American should be concerned that the Electoral College is under siege by an effort that would radicalize the U.S. political system.
Download free 12-page book here. Or at https://tinyurl.com/y2bcb6eo ☼
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Coronavirus lockdowns — what power does Constitution give governors?
A federal court in Pennsylvania has become the first in the nation to rule that the lockdown, social distancing, and essential workplace regulations imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf in response to the coronavirus pandemic are unconstitutional. If this decision stands, orders by governors regulating travel, assembly, and choice of work will fall.
“Procedural due process” mandates that the government may not interfere with anyone’s life, liberty, or property without a fair hearing before a neutral judge with constitutional protections, and based on laws and procedures that preexisted the government’s interference.
“Substantive due process” is another phrase for fundamental, pre-political or natural rights. When a right is protected by substantive due process and the government wants to interfere with it, the government must show a compelling state interest in what it wants to do, and that it is addressing that interest by the narrowest possible means, before we even get to the fairness and hearing phase.
Gov. Wolf argued that, in the name of public safety, he can arbitrarily decide in what venues one can assemble and in what venues one cannot. For example, Wolf permitted huge assemblies in Walmart, but no assemblies in small family-owned stores that sell the same products as Walmart. The court invalidated that distinction as unrelated to any legitimate governmental purpose.
The second and third issues addressed were the right to travel and the right to work. The court recognized that Wolf’s arbitrary designation of occupations as essential or nonessential had no basis in the Constitution. As well, the practical effect of compliance with those designations was to keep some folks at home and to allow others to travel to work.
Yet, the right to travel, across the street or across state lines, is a fundamental liberty and thus protected by substantive due process. Wolf and his team could not meet the high standard needed to interfere with it.
Most importantly, the court found that the right to work in a calling of one’s choosing is protected by substantive due process. Stated differently, this federal court is the first in the modern era to characterize the right to work as fundamental. Therefore, government may only interfere with it for compelling reasons and using the narrowest means possible. If this opinion is upheld, then all these authoritarian gubernatorial orders regulating personal behavior implicating travel, assembly and choice of work will fall. (Read more) ☼
Four Months of Unprecedented Government Malfeasance
Hillsdale College Imprimis opines on the lockdown (Written June, 2020).
Over the last four months, Americans have lived through what is arguably the most consequential period of government malfeasance in U.S. history. Public officials’ overreaction to the novel coronavirus put American cities into a coma; those same officials’ passivity in the face of widespread rioting threatens to deliver the coup de grâce. Together, these back-to-back governmental failures will transform the American polity and cripple urban life for decades. (Read more) ☼
Fight for America—Voters Must Do This to Stop Socialism and Anarchy
by Kathy C. James, President of The Heritage Foundation
KEY TAKEAWAYS
For months, the forces of Marxism, socialism and anarchy have terrorized our streets and threatened the values that make America the greatest nation in the world. The radical left’s ideas could destroy America for generations. The only bulwark that can stop them is an informed and energized citizenry. If you are alarmed at the state of our nation and if you believe in America, this is the time to fight for America. (Read more) ☼
“The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a natural philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) ☼
“Today’s leftists, socialists and progressives would bristle at the suggestion that their agenda differs little from those of Nazi, Soviet and Maoist mass murderers. Keep in mind that one does not have to be in favor of death camps or wars of conquest to be a tyrant. The only requirement is that one must believe in the primacy of the state over individual rights.” —Walter Williams ☼
VIRUS STUFF
Coronavirus tests: which one should you take?
New coronavirus tests are being developed every day. The Trump administration just ordered 150 million rapid antigen tests from Abbott Laboratories, but how do they stack up against other tests like the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test? Top infectious disease doctors from Harvard and Johns Hopkins break down the differences between the two tests to determine which diagnostic tool might be better at curbing transmission rates.
Rapid antigen tests have around a 97% sensitivity to detect people in the first week of infection of symptoms. And that, we know, is when people are most likely to transmit to other people. An antigen test looks for proteins of the virus or the actual shapes of the molecules that make up the virus. The test is done with a nasal or throat swab at a hospital or doctor’s office, but the hope is that these tests will soon be available for home testing in the near future. The biggest benefit, some say, is the fact that the test costs $5 and can deliver results within 15 minutes.
The diagnostic tool that is considered the “gold standard” for COVID-19 testing is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. PCR tests, also known as molecular tests, are performed at a hospital or medical office. One of the biggest differences between PCR and antigen tests is the speed of the test. The sample taken during a PCR test is typically sent to a lab where results are turned around between 24-hours up to a week, depending on lab capacity. Although antigen tests may not be as sensitive as PCR tests, frequent testing will be key to staying ahead of the curve. (Read more) ☼
Charts compare COVID deaths in countries that used hydroxychloroquine early and those that didn’t
By James Stansbury
The bottom line is that total deaths to date per million for countries using HCQ averages over 80% lower than in countries with limited use. (Read more) ☼
The Big COVID Con Exposed
By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D. (Written Sep. 2, 2020)
In the past week, two pillars of the COVID Con collapsed: deaths and positive tests. The first crack in the pillar occurred in early May when task force member Dr. Birx claimed, “There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust.” She believed the CDC was inflating Wuhan flu mortality by as much as 25 percent.
The pillar of COVID deaths crumbled just days ago when the CDC updated their mortality numbers to reflect deaths “from COVID” versus deaths “with COVID.”
Death with COVID means that George Floyd is counted a COVID death because he tested positive at autopsy. This is similar to the case of a Colorado man dying of alcohol poisoning but the death was later blamed on COVID. Washington public officials counted gunshot fatalities as COVID deaths.
The new CDC statistics show that only 6,640 deaths are due to COVID alone, rather than the commonly reported 164,280 deaths allegedly associated with COVID. In other words, only 4 percent of media sensationalized deaths were due solely to COVID and not other underlying medical conditions. (Read more) ☼
Dr. Li-Meng Yan claims The virus is man-made and spread to make damage
Dr Li-Meng Yan worked in the WHO Coronavirus Reference Lab in Hong Kong. She has just published a detailed paper claiming that the SARS-2 coronavirus was artificially made in a laboratory and it was deliberately spread. (Read more here and here and here) ☼
CLIMATE ISSUES
Wildfires Are Not Related to Global Warming
With the outbreak of large wildfires in California, the “mainstream” media is once again blaming it on global warming. However, the real evidence shows that the main causes are bad forest management, failure to clear brush near power lines, arson, and accidents. Note that ancient native Americans did controlled burns to manage the forest and make it more habitable for animals they hunted. But now, controlled burns and clearing brush are politically incorrect. (Read more on my wryheat blog) ☼
Irrefutable NASA data: global fires down by 25 percent
by Anthony Watts
Using satellite technology, NASA determined that between 2003 and 2019, global fires have dropped by roughly 25 percent. This makes the “climate change is worsening wildfires” argument completely moot. (Read more)☼
The US Climate in 2019
by Paul Homewood
The paper, by British climate writer Paul Homewood, examines official US weather sources and finds almost nothing to justify alarm.
“The temperature has risen a little”, says Homewood, “but temperature extremes are still a long way off the levels seen in the 1930s. And there has been a reduction in cold spells and climate-related deaths, so in many ways, the US climate has become less extreme compared to previous ages.”
It is the same story for rainfall. There has been an increase overall, but the wettest year on record was nearly 50 years ago. Droughts were mostly far worse in the 1930s.
“It’s hard to find anything in the records of recent weather in the US that should give anyone any cause for alarm” says Homewood. “It’s mostly rather reassuring. From heat to cold to storms and tornadoes, there is no trend that is out of the ordinary.” Download paper – 28 pages ☼
Attenborough’s new attempt to scare people about polar bear extinction and walrus deaths
by Dr. Susan Crockford
In a new book and Netflix film, Sir David Attenborough again presents false information about future polar bear survival and walrus deaths.
From the brink of extinction in the 1960s, global polar bear numbers have grown roughly three to four times what they were then. None of the 19 subpopulations have gone extinct despite unexpectedly low summer sea ice levels for the last 14 years (Crockford 2019) and their official range across the Arctic is as broad as it was 200 years ago. The claim that reduced summer sea ice in general leads to poor health of females and poor cub survival does not hold up to scrutiny: while it appears to have been true for Western Hudson Bay using old data, it is strongly contracted by recent data from studies in the Barents and Chukchi Seas (Crockford 2019, 2020). (Read more)
Dr. Susan Crockford is a zoologist (former adjunct professor, University of Victoria) specializing in Holocene mammals, including polar bears and walruses. Her new book is called The Polar Bear Catastrophe That Never Happened. ☼
Tucson City Council and the “Climate Emergency”
On September, 9, 2020, the Tucson City Council unanimously passed a very politically correct resolution that declares a “climate emergency” and vows that Tucson will become “carbon neutral” by 2030. You can read the entire 14-page resolution here. In my opinion, this quixotic resolution demonstrates the incredible ignorance of the council on matters of climate and energy. So far, I have not seen any figures on what this quest will cost the taxpayers. (Read more on my wryheat blog) ☼
Astrophysicist Asserts The Globe Will Cool ~1°C During 2020-2053 Due To An Oncoming Grand Solar Minimum
By Kenneth Richard
During the last Grand Solar Minimum (17th century), global surface temperatures dipped to the coldest of the last 10,000 years – about 1.4°C colder than today. Dr. Zharkova, an astrophysicist, has determined another imminent drop in solar activity will lead to a 1°C cooling in the coming decades.
From 1645 to 1710, the Sun went into a quiet phase referred to as the Maunder Minimum. During this period, the “surface temperature of the Earth was reduced all over the Globe” (Zharkova, 2020). Cold summers and winters ensued, with glaciers extending onto farmland, sea ice expanding beyond the Arctic, and “frost fairs” on frozen rivers in Europe.
In a new paper, Dr. Valentina Zharkova asserts that during solar cycles 25-27, the Sun may return to a modern Maunder-like Grand Solar Minimum. This solar quiet phase is expected to substantially reduce the Earth’s solar magnetic field, which will, in turn, lead to an increase in cosmic rays extending into Earth’s atmosphere and thus an increase in high clouds reflecting the Sun’s radiation back to space. The consequence? A reduction in global temperatures to just 0.4°C above what they were in 1710. (Read more) ☼
Farmers’ Almanac Forecast: Brutally Cold Winter For 2020-21
By Cap Allon
The Farmers’ Almanac bases its outlook on a “mathematical and astronomical formula” dating back to 1818, which takes sunspot activity and other astronomical anomalies into account, and is, therefore, in my opinion, far more reliable.
This annual periodical is predicting a “Grand Solar Minimum”-style winter for the United States and Canada this season. Officially dubbed “Winter of the Great Divide,” the Farmers’ Almanac is anticipating a brutally cold winter for northern, central, and eastern regions, drought in the west, and everything crazy in between.
If you love the cold of winter, you’re going to love our forecast if you live in the northern half of the country, reads a passage from the Farmers’ Almanac website. Our long-range forecast is calling for a cold winter with below-normal temperatures in areas from the Great Lakes and Midwest, westward through the Northern and Central Plains, and the Rockies. Areas across the Desert Southwest, (Arizona and southern California), are predicted to experience a dry and generally mild winter. While right along the Pacific Coastal Plain, from northern California and points north through western portions of Oregon and Washington, rainy and wet weather will be the rule for the winter ahead. (Source) ☼
ENERGY
Solar Panels Generate Mountains Of Toxic Waste—And Heat The Earth
by Duggan Flanakin
The problem of solar panel waste is now becoming evident. There is growing evidence that broken panels release toxic pollutants … [and] increasing concern regarding what happens with these materials when they are no longer viable, especially since they are difficult to recycle.” The near-total absence of end-of-life procedures for solar panels is likely a byproduct of the belief (and repeated, unsupported assertion) that renewable energy is “clean” and “green.” Other research has found that these large-scale solar power plants raise local temperatures, creating a significant solar heat island effect. Temperatures around one solar power plant were 5.4°-7.2°F (3°-4°C) warmer than nearby wildlands. (Read more) ☼
How the Private Sector Is Shaping the Future of Nuclear Energy
By Christopher Barnard
Last week, the future of nuclear energy got an immense boost. U.S. officials greenlit America’s first-ever commercial small modular reactor, to be constructed in eastern Idaho by a company called NuScale Power. The first will be built by 2029, with eleven more to follow by 2030.
Nuclear energy already provides 20 percent of American energy production, representing 60 percent of all clean energy in this country. Yet nuclear energy has stalled for several decades now, having fallen by 9 percent in terms of global energy generation since 2006. Of the 60 plants in operation in the United States, nine have already announced that they are closing, 16 are “at risk” of closure, and five are already gone. Together, this represents 15 percent of all carbon-free energy production in America.
Yet NuScale Power’s recently approved design marks a landmark achievement for the future of nuclear energy: the move towards smaller, more high-tech nuclear reactors — a type dominated by private-sector competition. These small modular reactors (SMRs) represent a real chance for energy innovation in the United States, and an opportunity to lead the world. As we increasingly seek to move away from fossil fuels and toward carbon-free forms of energy, SMRs will play a crucial role. We simply cannot rely on renewables such as solar and wind energy alone yet, meaning that competitive, new-generation reactors can fill that gap and reverse the trend of nuclear decline. (Read more) ☼
Ontario’s Green-Energy Disaster Doubled Power Prices, Fueled Backlash
By Babatunde Williams
A transition to renewables sent energy prices soaring, pushed thousands into poverty, and fueled a populist backlash. In February 2009, Ontario passed its Green Energy Act (GEA). This was the plan: increased integration of wind and solar energy into Ontario’s electricity grid would shut down coal plants and create 50,000 green jobs in the first three years alone. But on 1 January 2019, Ontario repealed the GEA, one month before its 10th anniversary. The 50,000 guaranteed jobs never materialized. A third of indigenous Ontarians now live in energy poverty. Ontarians watched in dismay as their electricity bills more than doubled during the life of the GEA. Their electricity costs are now among the highest in North America. (Read more) ☼
ENVIRONMENT
Rep. Liz Cheney Demands DOJ Investigate Whether China, Russia Are Infiltrating US Environmental Groups
by Chris White, Daily Signal
Rep. Liz Cheney, R- Wyo., asked the Department of Justice in September to investigate whether Russia and China are working to infiltrate environmental groups to influence U.S. environmental policy, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
Russia and China may be infiltrating nongovernmental groups in an attempt to meddle in domestic energy and environmental policy. “Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council, whose anti-fracking agendas align with the Kremlin’s, are low-hanging fruit for Russian influence. Cheney also expressed concern about Chinese influence. Republican members of the House Natural Resources Committee noted in 2018 that the Natural Resources Defense Council often praises the Chinese Communist Party’s environmental initiatives and promotes the idea of China as a global environmental leader. (Read more) ☼
End China’s Infection of the US Power Grid
By Paul Steidler
China and “probably one or two other” countries can shut down the U.S. power grid through a cyberattack. This disturbing revelation was made by Admiral Michael Rogers, former head of the National Security Agency, to Congress back in November 2014.
China has also become the world’s leading supplier of transformers – the “spine” of electricity grids — according to a 2014 U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) report. This also presents significant challenges to U.S. grid security.
For economic and security reasons, the United States should no longer purchase transformers and other electric grid equipment manufactured in China. It is important to end relationships that U.S. utilities have directly with Chinese businesses and multi-national companies manufacturing transformers in China.
These actions are envisioned under a May 1 Executive Order President Trump issued on protecting the bulk-power grid. Chinese power equipment provided to the U.S. can be embedded with software and hardware to remotely commit mischief from Beijing, enhancing its ability to commit cyberattacks. (Read more) ☼
INTERESTING QUOTES
“In courts of law one has a constitutional right to face one’s accusers and to have them cross-examined. In the political court one has no such rights. Slander and innuendo are the norm.” – Cal Thomas
“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Anyone who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others, denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them, instead of answering their arguments.” -Thomas Sowell
“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” -Thomas Paine (1776)
“…no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.” – Mark Twain
“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” -Thomas Paine (1776)
“The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.” – Daniel Webster
“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin
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Our Mission
1) Support private property rights.
2) Support multiple use management of federal lands for agriculture, livestock grazing, mining, oil and gas production, recreation, timber harvesting and water development activities.
3) Support a balance of environmental responsibility and economic benefit for all Americans by urging that environmental policy be based on good science and sound economic principles.
Newsletters can be viewed online on Jonathan’s Wryheat Blog:
https://wryheat.wordpress.com/
See my essay on climate change:
https://wryheat.wordpress.com/climate-in-perspective/
The Constitution is the real contract with America.
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People for the West – Tucson, Inc.
PO Box 86868
Tucson, AZ 85754-6868
Jonathan DuHamel, President & Editor
Dr. John Forrester, Vice President
Lonni Lees, Associate Editor
People for the West – Tucson, Inc. is an Arizona tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) corporation. Newsletter subscriptions are free.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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