1731 The Coal Huggers

The dilemma: what do you do with the people?  

There's no question we have to stop using fossil fuels. Or at least slow down.

But the coal huggers are right when they ask “what about the jobs?”

Never mind the fevered desperation of Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Gas. (Big Gas. That has a nice ring to it, no?)

When an energy company views the world from atop a mountain of money, who can blame it for striking out in fear?  Fight or flight.

You can write off the climate change deniers as people who have deep roots in an idea.  Kind of like a town full of out of work coal miners with the idea that moving is a wrong move.

Miners are people.  And they won’t migrate from home because there aren't real jobs anywhere else and because they’re, well, home.

“Training!” you say? “Training is the answer!” Training?   For what?  You can’t even find a job as a gas jockey anywhere in this country except New Jersey and Oregon.  And the fringe benefits?  You’re allowed a couple of free coffees from the convenience store each day to ward off the cold of winter and boost your flagging energy. So take what you get and don’t forget to say “thank you” to Manager Bob or even the free coffee will go away.

So what’s the solution?  Don’t look here, folks.

And don’t believe everything you hear about solar power and wind power.  We are not going to look like the Netherlands with its quaint windmills sitting passively in the lowlands.

To make enough electricity for a community larger than your block you need a propeller the size of the everglades and it has to be sitting in a typhoon zone.

Electric cars?  Earth to Earth-dayers.  They’re not selling well.  Even though they’re environmentally friendly and have won the hearts of cheating spouses and hard drinkers who need to sneak home silently in the small hours of the morning.

Doing good is good. Saving the whales, saving the spotted owls, saving the redwoods, saving the fruit flies.  All fine goals. And we should continue to do that.   But we also need real jobs for real people.

Yes, the unemployment rate is technically low. Don’t look too closely at how they arrive at those figures.  

What we’re in is not a recession and not a depression. What we’re in is a regression, a hillbillification.  There’s nothing wrong with “self reliance.” But there are limits in a country of this size, scope and population.

So stop pretending you’re living in the era of Davy Crockett and Wild Bill Hickok.

Those who will soon be in charge of dismantling modern America are trying to bring back a wonderful era that never was.

Today’s Quote:

“There’s (a sucker) born every minute.”  -- Attributed to P.T. Barnum but a phrase common among crooked 19th century gamblers.

Grapeshot:

-Let the record show that El Generalissimo, the chief- elect of the oncoming junta, is not really channeling Leona Helmsley except for the “only the little people pay taxes” part.

-Is it just me, or is there something wrong with the story of California mom Sheri Papini who disappeared while jogging on November 2nd and was found along a roadside on Thanksgiving Day.

-A sad farewell to pioneer astronaut and former Senator John Glenn of Ohio who has died at age 95.

Shrapnel:

--You may not realize it but the right and its “alt” have their own version of politically correct speech.  If you don’t call the Democratic Party the Democrat Party, you’re a “liberal,” or “the L word.” And you’re not anti abortion, you’re just “pro life” at least when it comes to protoplasm residing in a womb.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments and accusations to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2016