2019 - When The Darnedest Ideas Go Mainstream

One of the benefits of free speech is not so much that everyone can express an opinion but that it also exposes - for all to see and hear - the darnedest ideas ever brought up from the wackiest corners of the political and social realm. Wacky as they are, there is the unfortunate possibility that people will begin to believe them. Actually, there are believers already and we may wake up one day and find out we have created a wacky world that even the creators of the erstwhile "Twilight Zone" TV series could not have contrived, even in their wildest moments. Speaking of twilight zone, is it possible that the collective human mind may have already  reached its limit as if the mountain top of intellectual development had been drastically lopped off at the top into a plateau where everything merely flows downhill from there. Just think. Barely thirty days after swearing in, a twenty nine year old Congress person (adhering to PC cultural-ism) is seen by some as a shaker and mover of legislative policies and quickly embraced by and fast becoming a darling of the media. She cannot be underestimated. Nor those riding the same magic carpet woven from similar yarns of make believe.

Think again. Three decades ago, a year before she was born, the ideas that she now espoused would have been those coming from twenty year old survivors of Woodstock, though dismissed immediately at that time as too socially or politically permissive. The other twist of fate is that some of those who made it out of Woodstock or from the sub-culture of the 60's "Make Love Not War" flower population, managed to finish college from Berkeley and other fine schools of higher learning with the best liberal education money can buy. Miraculously they made it to the work force, many of whom had even become captains of industry and had since been shaping corporate policies at Silicon Valley (where else). But alas, many more of them had become college professors. And by the time they got their tenure they had aged to a respectable level as to be the most influential source of modern thought for the first batch of millennials entering and graduating from college. And beware because many of those millennials might decide to go to the polls in 2020 !

Green New Deal (on cows, airplanes and goodies for everyone !)

It is a resolution - not quite a bill in Congress (not yet anyway) - but it is getting a lot of press. I was struck by the initial reaction of the Democrat Speaker of the House who said, “The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it right?” For that reason and for all the hoopla surrounding subsequent reactions to the resolution from supporters and detractors alike, I read the resolution in its entirety. Why? That's what idle minds do. Besides, I was curious about the Speaker's reaction.

I knew that the few lines of bullet points condensed by the detractors into layman terms could not have been blatantly expressed as such in the resolution. So I read. Well, as to be expected of resolutions from folks in Congress, it was in legalese only self-respecting B+ law graduates could have scribbled in a hurry, in my opinion. In a hurry because we are now getting some kind clarifications, contextual explanations, even denials of the ascribed meanings and tweets and deleted website statements. To say that the "roll out" of the Green New Deal was not well thought out is an understatement.

Of course, the resolution didn't exactly say, in so few words, to get rid of airplanes, cows and guaranteed jobs even to those unwilling to work. The volume of words that are in it, however, offer enough clues from which anyone can sift through and conclude that indeed the bullet points on airplanes, cows and free goodies for everyone are in there when one considers other statements made before and after by proponents of the Green New Deal.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, now popularly known as AOC, is the charismatic 29 year old member of the New Congress. You see, outside of the resolution that she launched, flanked by other members of Congress, she was on TV saying the darnedest things. For example, she did say that if we do not do something about climate change, the world will end in twelve years. But for someone who did graduate with a business degree, she did not have a clue as to how much the program of the Green New Deal will cost. And she in fact did say other things relating to money and costs and budget that even those not exactly well versed in business  would have construed them to be too fantastic to believe or straight out of the ovens where pies from the sky are made. But that is a privilege politicians use that she is quickly learning to throw out there, hoping some of them will stick. And they might.  That's the scary part.

When asked about the prospect that this Green New Deal also calls for the elimination of air travel, the Democrat senator from the great state of Hawaii managed only a wry smile, though perhaps silently cringing from the possibility that she may never be able to leave or go back to her tropical constituents, except by boat (and it had better be an electric boat too). Of course, the resolution did not exactly say that air travel should be eliminated but detractors are given that ammunition from the "zero emissions" target called for by the resolutions. 

Now the whole idea of emissions control was farthest from its proponents'  minds when confronted by the fact that just two weeks ago in Davos Switzerland the most influential and most affluent voices against climate change swooped in with their over 1200 private jets - a  single concentration of what environmentalists deem to be the worse ozone-depleting vehicles on per ca pita basis.    But what about the call for the elimination of cows? It was not in the resolution either but others read that between the lines because AOC did say something about it from her other media feed. She and even a current 2020 presidential aspirant, presently a senator from the East Coast, did disparage these hapless domesticated animals for their supposedly excessive methane emissions and their inevitable nature to be regularly flatulent. The whole kerfuffle was further supported by some politicians' call for an end to steak dinners and barbecue and to encourage vegetarian habits because cows are "not good for the world". 

Let's for a moment talk about the humble cow. This meek bovine is nature's factory that converts the humanly-impossible-to-eat grass into protein, milk and raw material for shoes, belts and leather jackets. Technically, it extracts indirectly, but magically, energy from the sun, the vitamin D that comes with it. Nutrients from the soil that we won't dare consume directly goes to the grass that uses the sun's energy to process it and  the cow to convert it. Then as an ultimate sacrifice gives us T-bone, porterhouse and the smoothest leather sofa. Let's not forget  the entire agricultural industry (farmers, producers, grocery stores and rodeo) tied to the cow. It's the darnedest idea to talk about jobs for all while at the same time calling for the elimination of jobs in the dairy and farming industry.





Conflicting images; and there lies the dilemma for vegetarians because we know what's coming next - heads of lettuce and cabbage with placards.

Zero emissions also mean for the elimination of one of the best paying jobs that are in the oil industry.

  
It is no joke because in 2016 one presidential aspirant actually called for the coal industry's extinction. It is even more alarming to call for it now when this country went from being an oil hostage in the 70's and habitual oil importer to now a net exporter of it. Imagine how many jobs will be lost. 

Another freshman member of Congress passionately spoke for the TSA employees not getting paid during the shutdown. Then the following week she called for the elimination of the Department of Homeland Security which she deemed an oppressive arm of the government. Of course, she didn't know that the TSA is under the Department of Homeland Security. Again, job security for all persons of the United States but meanwhile let's eliminate a lot of jobs. Notice the resolution says guaranteed jobs for all persons, not citizens of the United States. Health care for all, college for all, all kinds of goodies for all. How much will it cost? The only certainty in  all of these is that proponents of free stuff for everyone have no clue how much the tax payers will have to fork for these half-baked pies.

Darn, there's more but let's not over do it. Save some for later. Maybe socialism, anyone?