Odds and ends number 125
Since I'm using the concept from monoblogue, I'm keeping the numbering system, too. Here are thinner slices of bloggy goodness.
It was a bit slow newswise in November (if you were looking for non-election stuff) as well as being a holiday weekend, but I made it through. And make sure to read to the end for a special offer.
Is government the energy solution?
It’s ground often trod by the Caesar Rodney Institute, but speaking on behalf of A Better Delaware was energy consultant Kenneth J. Reuter Jr., who notes:
The article discusses the growing demand for electricity and questions current policies addressing this need. It criticizes political approaches like the "Green New Deal" for lacking technical foresight and pushing costly, unreliable generation options like offshore wind and solar, while shutting down coal plants. Instead, it advocates for proven solutions such as natural gas-fired plants and nuclear power, highlighting their safety, efficiency, and potential for cleaner energy. The article calls for a fact-based, forward-thinking energy strategy, driven by technology rather than government mandates, to ensure abundant and reliable electricity for the future.
Technology and not government mandates? Imagine that.
Here’s the thing about how our energy is coming to us: in a perfect world, the private sector thrives on giving us reliable energy at a reasonable price. This is why coal was king for awhile, but has given way to natural gas. We have abundant supplies of each, and although they each have some element of pollution to them, we’ve decided in the market that the tradeoff between the minor amount of environmental spoilage and inexpensive, reliable electricity is an acceptable one.
Yet government seems to want to force upon us unreliable, expensive sources of energy that (supposedly) aren’t polluting, but instead shift the pollution overseas in securing the rare earth and heavy metal materials necessary for their construction - not that we have enough from friendly sources to go around, anyway. They also want to use valuable farmland as solar farms, which is a problem when farms are disappearing.
As usual, look at an “expert” from the private sector to have the required expertise.
More ideas for health care
Speaking of A Better Delaware, they also had some thoughts on health care, a subject that hits me where I live given what my spouse does.
As Jane Brady of ABD notes:
If you open up the 2024 Senior Healthcare State Report Card on the SeniorLiving.org website, the first key finding shows that Delaware gets an ‘F’ grade. The report looks at three key factors affecting senior citizens, who, while suffering declining health and often on fixed incomes or Medicare coverage, have difficulty in navigating and accessing the healthcare they need. Those factors are cost, access to care and quality of care.
I can tell you that the cost sucks because we don’t have a whole lot of choice in health insurers (her employer seems to bounce annually between the only two options we seem to have), access to care is spotty because there’s a doctor shortage, particularly specialists in some areas of practice, in Slower Lower Delaware, and the quality of care suffers because of it.
While Brady notes some areas which are improving, her biggest complaints are the Certificate of Need requirement and recent legislation mandating the state look at hospital budgets and override their spending decisions. Both can be repealed with legislative action.
But the biggest issue is one we can’t do a whole lot about: our population is older and sicker than the average American because we attract a LOT of retirees, a point I’ve labored on multiple times before. They might be healthy when they arrive but give them a decade and they’re suffering the same aches and pains as everyone else. Thus, it would help all of us to improve the health care industry here and maybe attract some younger folks.
Working class blues turned red
I thought this piece by Michael Watson of the Capital Research Center was fascinating as it looked at what Watson called the three working classes, with a particular emphasis on union labor.
Back in the day, Big Labor and the Democrats could always count on one another’s support, but that has gone out the window with the rise of Donald Trump. Notice, as Watson did, that the Teamsters and fire fighters’ unions did not endorse Kamala Harris, choosing to endorse neither Harris nor Trump. (But the rank-and-file workers voted for Trump anyway.)
If anything, the tension in Trump’s second term will be between the idea of slashing government with the Department of Government Efficiency and expanding the portions of government that make populists happy. And don’t forget that many of these government employees are unionized in their own labor organization, which was foursquare behind Harris. How about killing two birds with one stone?
The chance to succeed?
Since I’m talking about cutting government, that’s the beat of the Convention of States and they’re excited about the incoming administration.
Convention of States supporters are poised to step into our nation’s highest offices, from Vice President and Secretary of State to Secretary of Defense and Speaker of the House.
Over the past few days, President Trump has been announcing his appointments to the Trump Administration, and one thing is very clear -nearly every single appointee is a vocal supporter of utilizing Article V to permanently limit federal power.
I’ll grant that they are looking through the federal government lens at an issue concerning the state level (as individual states ratify the CoS resolution for an Article V convention) but it doesn’t hurt the cause to have the backing at the federal level. If you figure 31 states went for Trump, getting them on board makes it easier to work on the three Harris states required. (I would focus on Maine, New Hampshire, and Virginia.) No one said it would be easy, but they made it difficult to change the Constitution for a reason.
Now if we can just get our government to follow it.
A comprehensive 2A primer, part two
This may sound familiar, but I’ve used the fine folks at ammo.com a lot for these odds and ends over the last few years. They make no bones about which side they’re on because their livelihoods depend on it. Luckily, it’s the right side.
This time around we’re talking about Gun Facts, including this one that surprised me:
As of 2017, Americans possessed 46% of the world’s civilian-owned firearms.
Don’t you just love that Second Amendment?
What they’re telling us is that we have one heck of an army, which is why the government seems to want to disarm us. The Deep State likes us being controllable, but 84 million people feel otherwise, according to their gun facts.
The other side of government
I sort of switched up my order and logic because I wanted to close with this. Despite the fact they barely received 40,000 votes nationwide with their ticket of Randall Terry and Stephen Broden - just 1/5 of what their 2016 Presidential candidate Darrell Castle secured - the Constitution Party is soldiering on.
But maybe they’re beginning to rethink their approach, which is what I’ve thought they needed for awhile. They sent me an e-mail the other day (since I’m registered with the party, I oughta be on that list.)
After telling me the fib, “The Constitution Party has experienced a successful election cycle as the party continues to gain ground,” they got down to the important part:
We must now build on these efforts. We are looking to build Constitution Party State Affiliates in every State and county affiliates in every county in America. To that end, if you are interested in joining or starting a Constitution Party affiliate in your area, please let us know. We are working to secure individual rights in every community.
Delaware actually has a Constitution Party, but it annually fights with the Republicans as to who can be less effective and more tone deaf. I’m hoping that, with a new national party chair who hails from Pennsylvania, maybe some love will accrue to the First State. We don’t need to petition our way onto the ballot, just convince about 600 or so like-minded people to fill out the Board of Elections form to change their party affiliation.
But this may be the right message to attract those people:
The strength of the members and the supporters of the Constitution Party is their ability to take individual responsibility for what is happening around them and choose to make a difference by doing something to fix the situation. Individuals become more effective when they organize and work together for a common goal, and we call on each of you to be the difference maker in your community.
I have a little more to say about the CP, but that will be a post of its own down the road.
As I alluded to with the 2A piece, I just need one heck of a readership, although the ones I already have are great. But if you like what I’m doing here, remember:
But wait, there’s more! In the spirit of Small Business Saturday and because a lot of my friends are doing the same (I’ve taken advantage of a couple already) I’m having a sale on my paid annual subscriptions. Just follow this link for 50% off!
Until my next edition of odds and ends, you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.