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December 7th, 2018
Editor’s Note: We pause to remember the 77th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Quote of the Week: “Last Friday, when I was told he had minutes to live, I called him. I said, ‘Dad, I love you, and you’ve been a wonderful father.’ And the last words he would ever say on Earth were, ‘I love you, too.’”
In This Issue:
THEY LOVE THEM – WHEN THEY’RE GONE The cynicism and fecklessness of the Left is a daily lesson, a reminder taught each and every day that the Left’s ideology is a dogged pursuit of vapid power. Power for the sake of power. This week, everyday Americans were treated to chapter 2 of “We love that guy! Now that he’s dead.” Just weeks ago, the Left canonized John S. McCain. War hero, statesman, patriot. Years before that, the Left labeled him a war criminal for bombing North Vietnam and engaged in a whisper campaign questioning his mental fitness. You know, being a prisoner of war for all those years. Then McCain provided transactional value to the Left for his vitriolic hatred of Donald Trump, including the possibility that it was McCain himself who provided the fake Russian dossier to the FBI. It was déjà vu all over again this week as the Left rushed to heap nostalgic praise on George H.W. Bush, a man who represented, to them, a time when Republicans could be punched and not punch back. Bush was a man they never praised as president. He was “extreme” because he was pro-life. He was complicit in all things Reagan. He presided over economic policies that were wrong and could be cured by the man the Left universally supported against Bush – William Jefferson Clinton. Bush, although not as useful to the Left as McCain as a cudgel to bash Trump, nonetheless served his purpose as a contrast to Trump’s sharp elbowed politics and sharper tongue. Make no mistake. John McCain and George H.W. Bush deserve sincere praise and authentic fond remembrance. Their service to country was remarkable and model for all Americans to follow. Excuse us if we’re just a little skeptical of the Left’s crocodile tears. SAINT PAUL, FRANCE It’s not often that this publication can run a direct line between socialist France and Saint Paul. This week is a different story. Paris has been set ablaze and sacked in spectacular fashion (even by French riot standards) over the implementation of gasoline taxes. Apparently, the yellow-vested rioters giving new meaning to “City of Lights” were thoroughly unimpressed that the basis for the new taxes was slavish worship at the altar of climate change. This in a country where high taxes are usually borne with snotty approbation for just about any reason or even no reason at all. A tax increase? Cest la vie! When the French have concerns about a tax, you know it’s real. Across the pond in the New World, New Age governor-elect Tim Walz has spent the past few days touting tax increases. Tax increases on gasoline, to be specific. Steeped in the Northern European culture of stoic endurance, there is really no threat that we will see overturned Blue Line cars or burning Saabs in Uptown. But we have seen consistent polling that shows gas taxes in Minnesota being as popular as gas taxes in France. A proposed gas tax in the highest taxed state in the union, in a time a billion-dollar budget surpluses, has already handed the GOP a winning political issue. Minnesotans continually oppose gas tax increases, as seen in the most recent polling. But wait! That’s not all. We also learned this week that Xcel Energy, provider of electricity and natural gas to over 3 million customers across eight states (including Minnesota), has promised to be a zero emissions utility by 2050. What that promise will do to utility bills will make the gas tax look like a puppet show. Check utility rates in Germany or California for guidance. It’s almost as if the elites have forgotten that 2016 ever existed. The lesson of politics across the globe over the past few years has been that the masses have grown tired of the elites and their social engineering. They have grown tired of paying the price for their utopian policies and cynical financial self-dealing in the process. Any politician looking for trouble in 2020 should continue to talk about making gasoline, electricity and other staples of life more expensive. CLIMATE SAME There has been a lot of blame laid on “climate change” for the tragic wildfires that have plagued California in recent years, including the deadly fires this fall. “Never let a crisis go to waste” says the Left. The unfortunate reality is that many reputable climate scientists are positing that the droughts (along with poor forest management policies) creating the tinder-dry conditions are a reversion to a more normal climate for the western United States. Put another way, many of these scientists believe that the 20th Century was a remarkably wet and aberrational century. During that century, of course, the population exploded and more and more homes and cities were built in heavily forested areas. If this theory holds true, the western U.S. will revert to a much drier weather pattern over the coming one hundred years, posing real challenges regarding forest management, water resource management, and planning/zoning issues. While some want to blame every adverse weather event on “climate change”, that’s simply not the case. Here, it appears that the climate change is simply a reversion to the mean. Of course, the climate changes. It always has and always will. The real issues are the causes of climate change and the practical impacts on humans. Some changes are challenging (e.g. drought) while other are positive (e.g. land becoming arable). It is height of liberal arrogance to presume that government can simply pass laws that will tame the Earth’s constant climate evolution. Of course, there needs to be an environmental crisis to manage at any given time. A crisis that, of course, demands government intervention. Global warming, global cooling, acid rain, the ozone layer, too many hurricanes, too little water, too much water, etc. In reality, much the ideology underlying these issues is little more than human self-loathing. |
 Harold Hamilton
Welcome to my web site!
I created this website in response to governmental waste and abuse in Anoka County. Many taxpayers don’t know that our local governments spend millions of tax dollars every year on things like public relations teams, lobbyists, and junkets to places like Hawaii. Since there seemed to be no place to turn for the “other side” of these issues, I created the Anoka County Watchdog. My intent is to create a one-stop-shop where concerned taxpayers can find fact-supported information and other resources to counter the governmental machine. Many people want to confront their elected officials regarding waste and abuse but feel they don’t have the information they need to make an effective argument. This web site offers that information. Some of our elected officials in Anoka County have become arrogant and unresponsive, forgetting that they work for the very people who put them in office. It’s high time to hold them accountable for their decisions. Sincerely, Harold E. Hamilton (harold@anokacountywatchdog.com) Email: harold@anokacountywatchdog.com
US Mail: Anoka County Watchdog 7956 Main Street NE Minneapolis, MN 55432 (Anonymous submissions accepted!) |
