Climate Change

 

Climate Change

 

Back in 2015, I undertook to research prevailing thoughts and opinions on a number of “hot button issues.  My goal was to try to remove political bias from these issues, and stay with the observable facts.

 One of the topics in 2015, before Trump, Biden, et al, was climate change and control, as it is now.  Since Biden is currently attending a climate conference in Scotland (when he’s not asleep), I thought it pertinent to review the topic from 2015.

 10.) “ The Environment, Global Warming

 One positive impact of the environmental movement is that we humans have become more responsible on what we spew into our air and water.  This responsibility is obviously a good thing, and even countries like China, India and Russia are become better citizens of the world concerning the environment by adopting some modicum of environmental controls.  Our atmosphere, rivers, lakes and oceans have become cleaner in the last 30 years.  Again, this is somewhat anecdotal, but the trend toward fewer pollutants has to be positive.

 

Unfortunately the environmental movement has gone way overboard on global warming and has instilled fear in concerned scientists that have developed data and conclusions that counter the loudly proclaimed contention that global warming is caused primarily by human generated emissions into the atmosphere.  A figure bandied about by pundits and politicians, including Obama and Kerry in the U.S., is that 97% of the world’s scientists agree that global warming caused my human emission into the atmosphere is a mounting threat.  This assertion has been proven to be patently false.  These links support the “de-mythifying” of the 97% claim.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425232/97-percent-solution-ian-tuttle

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303480304579578462813553136

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/05/30/global-warming-alarmists-caught-doctoring-97-percent-consensus-claims/  The following link presents what seems to be a balanced pro and con commentary of the global warming phenomenon.

http://climatechange.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001445.

 

A review of the data and conclusions of both the proponents and detractors of global warming (seemingly about equally in number, not 97% in either direction), is not definitive.  The studies are either incomplete, too anecdotal , or political in nature, or the results and conclusions get lost in the scale and mass of the data.  These Pew Research studies add some significance.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/16/ideological-divide-over-global-warming-as-wide-as-ever/

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/23/most-americans-believe-in-climate-change-but-give-it-low-priority/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQshyqCLYHo  Scientific proofs against

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447215/climate-change-activists-science-deniers-environmentalism-public-policy?target=topic&tid=1769  A recent essay

 

 The following link is to an in depth and comprehensive statistical analysis of the earth’s natural heating and cooling cycles and the effect of human activity on these cycles. http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/global-warming/natural-cycle.  It appears to be a valid scientific attempt to examine and isolate the variables affecting the earth’s temperature cycles.  The scales used visually skew the results but do not markedly detract from the conclusion, that there is a measurable effect on the earth’s normal temperature cycles due to human activities since 1750.  This measurable effect is on the order of a few tenths of a centigrade degree and almost gets lost in the scales used in the analyses.

 

The Open source Foundation, which has no political agenda reports as follows: “The data clearly indicates global warming is happening and is human caused. At this time in the natural cycle Earth should be slightly cooling on trend, leading into what would have been the next ice age. Instead Earth is warming. There is no valid evidence that can prove otherwise. False representations or facts out of context are not a proof of any kind, they are merely incorrect.”  http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/global-warming/myths.

 

It comes to mind that the above study does not distinguish industrial activities from those resulting from the massive increase in human and animal populations since 1750, nor does it identify the effect of deforestation on global warming.  Human beings have increased from 790 million to roughly 10 times that to nearly 8 Billion during this time.  http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history1.aspx.  Estimates of animals that also breathe in oxygen, exhale carbon dioxide and produce methane through flatulence are estimated currently as 20 quintillion (20 billion billion).  http://animals.mom.me/number-animals-earth-3994.html.  If animals (farm animals, etc, have also increased by a factor of 10 since 1750 similar to humans, there should be a measureable effect on global temperatures by more humans and animals just being here on earth and breathing in and out with no burning of fossil fuels.

Deforestation:  http://www.climateandweather.net/global-warming/deforestation.html.

Quoting from the above link, “Forests are vital for life, home to millions of species, they protect soil from erosion, produce oxygen, store carbon dioxide, and help control climate. Forests are also vital for us to live as they provide us with food, shelter and medicines as well as many other useful things. They also purify the air we breathe and water that we need to survive. Deforestation by humans is causing all of these necessary functions to be lessened, and hence damaging the atmosphere even further.

Forests play a huge role in the carbon cycle on our planet. When forests are cut down, not only does carbon absorption cease, but also the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere as CO2 if the wood is burned or even if it is left to rot after the deforestation process.

Smaller crops e.g. plants and agricultural crops also draw in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, however forests store up to 100 times more carbon than agricultural fields of the same area.

Deforestation is an important factor in global climate change. Climate change is because of a build up of carbon dioxide in out atmosphere and if we carry on cutting down the main tool we have to diminish this CO2 build up, we can expect the climate of our planet to change dramatically over the next decades.

It is estimated that more than 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide are released to the atmosphere due to deforestation, mainly the cutting and burning of forests, every year.

Over 30 million acres of forests and woodlands are lost every year due to deforestation; causing a massive loss of income to poor people living in remote areas who depend on the forest to survive”.

 To summarize, human activities have indeed contributed to measurable deviation in the normal temperature cycles of planet earth.  The extent and impact of this deviation has been exaggerated by alarmists pushing their own political agendas.  Efforts to reduce emissions and reduce our carbon footprint cannot fail to have an overall beneficial effect on our environment.  These efforts should be pragmatic and based on science rather than on anecdotal or emotional or politically driven appeals.”

 

Ray Gruszecki

November 2, 2021

Vaccination

 

Vaccination

 A particularly egregious policy of Joe Biden and his handlers, is to try to force Covid-19 vaccinations on everyone in the country.  This heavy-handed, forced approach may work on some of the uninformed sheep that elected Biden because they didn’t like Trump’s tweets, but it doesn’t work on many Americans, whose forefathers coined the phrase “don’t tread on me”.

 If we recall, President Trump, in nine months, oversaw the development of three effective vaccines against Covid-19, and pretty much left their application in the hands of the medical doctors and scientific experts.  That’s not to say that Trump did not encourage everyone to get vaccinated, he just did not try to force it on anyone.

 Along comes the vacuous Biden and his clueless handlers in January of 2021, to “f… it up”, in the words of the saintly Obama.  And so he did, by applying fascistic force to the vaccination issue.  Instead of letting the doctors and scientists vaccinate the population, Biden was going to force it, and take credit for “curing Covid”.

 Americans of various stripes rebelled and resisted, and rather than an orderly process to vaccinate most of the country, we have politicized anti-vaxxer movements, in the streets, protesting the dictatorial Biden government action.

 Personally, as an older person, I got my first two Pfizer shots and the booster, as soon as I could.  I was motivated by medical and scientific considerations, and not anything that Biden was doing.  But a lot of people were turned off and resisted the shots because of the force being applied by the Biden cabal.

 So, the country is needlessly fragmented by the vaccination issue, because of Biden’s continuing stupidity.  Everything he touches turns to crap, while he struts around in his arrogance, bragging about how good a job he’s doing.  Because of the pro-left media propaganda, some people still believe him.

 Ray Gruszecki

October 30, 2021

Reflections Toward End of Life

 

Reflections Toward End of Life

 When I was younger, about 80, or so, I targeted for my life to reach the year 2020.  It was a nice round number, and implied perfect vision, among other things.

 When 2020 arrived, instead of an idyllic, perfect, year, it came with the Chinese Communists’ originated Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed 5 million people world-wide as of this writing, and is still killing people at the end of 2021. 

 The origin of this pandemic has become so politicized and obfuscated, that we will never know the true story of what happened at that Wuhan, China virus lab. Suffice it to say, that only one country, China, gained world-wide advantage from the pandemic. (Check the GDP’s to confirm.)

  Several friends have died from Covi-19.  Thankfully, no extended family members have died from it, but several have had relatively mild cases of Covif-19 over the last two years.

 I got vaccinated in early 2021, and got the booster as soon as I could, not because it was “mandated” by Biden, but because of my age and the obvious scientific and medical considerations.  Hopefully, I will have escaped contracting Covid-19 and dying from it.

 So, my next goal, after 2020-21, and Covid-19, is to live to 90 years of age. I feel that my chances are pretty good.  I’m reasonably healthy, with few, if any, of the afflictions of advanced age.  My heart and lungs and other vital organs seem to be working well.  I do not have diabetes. My mind does not seem to have been touched by dementia and its subsets like Alzheimer’s.  I see doctors and specialists regularly and take both prescribed medications and vitamins and supplements,

 I have physical balance issues, and need to be careful not to fall.  So, if I don’t fall and break my neck, I should make 90 years of age, or more.

 I have a stent in my heart that was inserted in 2013, but no heart disease of which I’m aware.  Of course, the heart is an amazing muscle.  It started working months before my birth, and hopefully, will continue working into my nineties. I am fully aware that it could stop at any time in advanced age, and I try to mitigate this by diet and exercise.

 Reflecting on advancing age and end of life considerations is not the most pleasant of exercises.  What helps is a relatively lucid and logical mind that still works pretty well.

 I completed downsizing from the house that I lived in for nearly 40 years, to an active senior community in 2019, and sold the house before Covid-19 hit.  I can think logically, without the prodding of loved ones, about whether to maintain a relatively expensive car that I am using less and less. Similar with other life and independence choices, like travel and such, at this stage of my life.

 One major consideration toward the end of life are finances.  Many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, and never save adequately for retirement.  The social security that FDR instituted in the 1930’s has yielded about a 2-3% return for most people’s working years, and the overall average social security check is about $1.400 per month. For most people, social security covers about 30-40% of retirement living expenses.  Medicare covers 80% of major medical issues, leaving 20% to the individual, sometimes defrayed by Medicare supplements.

 Working into my seventies, regular savings, sale of my house and some possessions, and a friendly (so far) investment market, have left me reasonably comfortable financially.  My spreadsheets show me with enough money to stay financially viable into my nineties, barring any major financial/medical/long term care disruptions.  I’m hoping that I’ll live to about my mid-nineties, and then die quietly in my sleep.

 This is all hopeful and optimistic, I know.  As the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us, “the best laid plans…”  But, God willing, I should make ninety plus with a still functioning mind, and not too severe a physical balance issue, and continuing to enjoy many things in life.

 Ray Gruszecki

October 29, 2021

The Fentanyl Crisis

 

The Fentanyl Crisis

 I’m putting these links out there so that people can learn about the scourge of Chinese made and smuggled Fentanyl, that is killing increasing numbers of illegal drug users in the U.S.

 This opioid crisis is no longer “the other guy”, or “the other family”.  It is afflicting and killing statistically more Americans, even those "just experimenting" with “party drugs”.

 Apparently, the Chinese communists weren’t satisfied in killing nearly a million Americans with Covid.  They are increasing the kill rates with Fentanyl.

 https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/index.html

 https://www.dea.gov/resources/facts-about-fentanyl

 https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

 https://www.ice.gov/features/opioid-crisis

 https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/us-fentanyl-crisis-what-know

 

Ray Gruszecki

October 27, 2021

My Heritage

 

My Heritage

 I was born in he 1930’s, and was raised in a little hill town in Western Massachusetts.  My heritage is Polish.  My mother and paternal grandfather were born in Poland.

 I, myself, am as American as “Yankee doodle dandy”.  Unlike many people originally from New England, my politics are not liberal or “progressive”.

 I lost my original Catholicism, that I inherited from my “polska matka”, and am now a Methodist. (long story).

 The one thing that I never lost was the love of Polish culture.  I like Polish food, Polish music, Polish dance, Polish weddings and all the other things Polish, that abound in Polish-Americana.

 I am still an afficionado of specially made kielbasa. (Labuda’s in Ludlow, MA, and Winski’s in Brooklyn are the best kielbasas that I’ve had).  Originally my mother’s, and now my sister’s (and mine) pierogi, kapusta and golumpki, are the best.  There are no commercial equivalents.

 When I was kid, in about the mid 1940’s, my parents’ occasional Sunday afternoon visits to extended family would sometimes include my second cousin, Eddie Antone, who learned to play the accordion in the Navy, and Steve Wojcik, who played the violin, or fiddle. These two guys, playing Polish polkas, obereks and waltzes, made memorable music that would get my young Polish DNA blood flowing. 

 I had the same reaction in later years, when I returned from college in Boston on a weekend, and attended the Polish weddings of former high school mates.  Polish music, Polish food, - and now enhanced with beer, alcohol and girls.

 My old, overly educated, somewhat jaded psyche still stirs when I hear the old-style Polish music played by Frank Wojnarowski or Eddie Blazonczyk or Lennie Gomulka, and you can poke around Youtube, and find the old songs, like “Goral”, “Matka”, and others.  I still eat the original Southern Polish cuisine, when I visit Massachusetts, New York State and Vermont, because my sister, and other younger members of the extended family still cook it.

 J visited Southern Poland and Zakopane, in 2013, and found that area to be very similar to the Berkshires where I grew up.  It is small wonder that my family, and many others who immigrated from this area and chose the Berkshires in which to settle.

 Ray Gruszecki

October 25, 2021

Biden’s Dystopia

 

Biden’s Dystopia

 I’m sure that we all have noticed, even the inveterate liberals and progressives who primarily elected him over that nasty, tweeting Trump, that we are living in Biden’s self-made dystopia.

 Was it only 10 months ago that we had a thriving economy, recovering smartly from a debilitating year of Covid pandemic?

 We had $2.00 per gallon gasoline prices, no inflation and increasing real employment.

 We had a stabilized, (if not perfect) southern border.

 We had plans to withdraw from Afghanistan in and orderly and rational fashion. 

 We had three separate vaccine families that had been developed in an unheard-of nine months, with vaccination efforts left largely to the scientists and the states.  

 We were holding China and other international thugs like Putin, Kim Jong Un and Erdogan at bay with tariffs and a strong foreign policy.

 We had two sexes instead of infinite ”genders”.

 We were not teaching racial bigotry via “Critical Race Theory” and “The 1619 Project”, in our schools.

 And for all his tweeting and verbal foibles, and in spite of the leftist campaigns against him from the very beginning of his presidency, President Trump stabilized the country by his actions, and elicited patriotism from the vast middle of the country.  He made “America First”, and made most of us proud to be Americans again.

 Contrast what we have 10 months later with Biden’s dystopia, - a disastrous deterioration of our economy, national integrity, foreign policy and social identity.

 Empty shelves?  Shortages for Christmas? $5.00 gasoline?  Dictatorial vaccine mandates?  Upwards of 2 million unvetted and mostly unvaccinated illegals in the country?  Americans and allies left behind to the Taliban?  China and others making aggressive moves?  Teaching racial bigotry in our schools?  All Joe Biden’s doing.  All Joe Biden’s dystopia.

 Clearly Joe Biden himself is not all there.  What he lacks in mental acuity, he makes up for with outright lies and arrogance.  He can’t hold a sentence or thought together, but boy, can he get riled when asked a pertinent question about his administration.

 It has been postulated that “progressives” like Susan Rice and Ron Klain are manipulating Joe’s puppet strings.  His daily close circle consists of Ron Klain, Mike Donilon, Mao-loving former Obama WH communications chief Anita Dunn, Bruce Reed; Steve Ricchetti,

former Trump impeachment cheerleader, Cedric L. Richmond.

 Some say that there is George Soros money, and Chinese Communist influence behind what is happening with Biden.  Other scuttlebutt opines that he is his own worse enemy, as he has been for all those years in the senate and as vice president to Obama.

 Whoever is running Biden, they are running our country straight to socialism, Marxism, and let’s face it, ultimately, communism.  Most of the democrats in congress have been co-opted to go along with this, as have many voters who have been exposed in school, to the altruistic aspects of socialism, and have forgotten, or never learned, the long-term destructive effects of this corrosive philosophy.

 The only thing we can hope for is that the country catches on before its too late, and reverses this “America last” movement.  The country is catching on.  Biden’s dystopia is affecting their pocketbooks and their kids, two powerful motivators.

 Ray Gruszecki

October 23, 2021

Woe, Our Poor Country

 

Woe, Our Poor Country

 What an absolute dolt is this Biden!  He has done unprecedented harm to our country: its society, its laws, its economy, its military, its identity as a country, and on and on and on.  Everything he and his inexperienced socialists have touched has turned to crap.

 Did we not see this from his ineffective 37 years in congress, his 8 years as Obama’s Vice President and his cowardly hiding in his Delaware basement during the 2020 presidential campaign?  Even Obama enjoined him from running for president, and opined that he would f--- it up.

 And I’m not referring to his obvious senility and mental degradation.  It’s his bloviating and arrogance in light of myriad failures that makes him a hypocritical and inept occupant of the white house.

 And, unfortunately, we can’t get rid of him until 2024, because even with a massive republican takeover of the house and senate in 2022, the 67 votes needed in the senate to remove him are next to impossible.  And assuming that Biden could be impeached and removed, who would we have in his stead, laughing girl Kamala, who is almost as incompetent as old Joe.  Impeach Kamala too and open it up for Kevin McCarthy or another republican speaker of the house? – again, hardly likely.

 The only thing that we can rationally hope for is a substantial republican win-over of both houses of congress in 2022, so that they can limit the unbridled stupidity of Joe Biden and his Marxist minions.

 Ray Gruszecki

October 15, 2021