Seeing Red

A lot of people I am related to are dyed in the wool liberals. Some of them are even radical progressives. They are wonderful and generous people who would give an arm or a leg to anyone in need. They loved President Obama, could not believe that any sane person would vote for President Trump and thought that Hillary Clinton would continue to implement their progressive vision to fundamentally change who and what America is. They believe the world and America was in the midst of a historic and inevitable metamorphose where enlightened leaders would ensure equality and fairness for all.

November 8, 2016 was thus a tremendous shock to their mental and emotional state. Like what was expressed by liberals and the main stream media throughout the country, there was never for a moment a wait and see attitude as to how things would play out.  It was hate Trump from the very first moment and that Trump hate was openly expressed against any who dared to express any kind of support for the new President.

For the last 3 years they have been convinced that orange man bad would be removed, that Republicans would regret ever voting for him and that the next election would return sanity to themselves as well as to the country.

In an effort then to help them avoid any further mental breakdowns when the results are announced early in the evening of November 3, 2020 and instead ease into a grudging acceptance earlier, I thought it would be a loving thing to provide some statistics and information they may not normally be exposed to.

The first thing to mention is that the trend in the Western world today is away from Internationalism and Progressiveism and toward National Populism. This is demonstrated in Great Britain by the Brerxit movement, where the ruling class in Westminster and the liberal press wanted and still want to stay in the EU but 60% of the population voted to leave. You can see it in Canada where just yesterday in their national elections Trudeau's Liberal party, although his collation still retains power, lost a fairly large number of seats and now holds less than the Conservative party. You can see the same trends happening in France, Poland, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Brazil. Check out Dr. Steve Turley's YouTube videos for commentaries on these trends.

The second thing to mention is that Moody Analytics, which has been right about every election since 1980 (except for Trump's in 2016, due to large swings in previous voting patterns) foresee a Trump victory in the Electoral College in all 3 of the categories they measure. In 2016 Trump beat Clinton 304 to 226. Now Moody's Jobs metrics predicts Trump will increase his electoral seats to 326 and the Pocketbook metrics predicts an increase to 351 seats. If the economy tanks between now and the election they may have some hope but Moody has already factored some of that possibility into their calculations.

The third thing they should know is that unlike what they may be hearing from the main stream media (MSM) and the Internet sites they frequent, there is not any significant defection away from President Trump. He currently has a 95% approval rating from his base and his base of support has been rapidly growing.

Here is a statistic that is very interesting. A few weeks ago President Trump held a rally in New Mexico. There were 45,000 people who came. Fifteen thousand were able to be inside the auditorium and thirty thousand outside. Here are statistics that were compiled from those 45,000. Forty per cent of them were Hispanic. Thirty per cent had previously voted Democrat. Twenty per cent were people who had not voted in the last 4 presidential elections.

Those numbers reinforce trends that are being recorded nationwide. In 2016 Trump drew in large numbers of people who had not voted before because they believed their vote never counted. That is one reason Congress went Republican in 2016 but lost seats in 2018 because Trump was not on the ballot. I believe it is reasonable to expect that they and many more like them will show up to vote in 2020.

Hispanic support for President Trump has already jumped 10 points since he was elected and continues to trend higher.

For many decades eighty-seven per cent of Blacks on average have voted Democrat and that is about what Trump received in 2016. Several things have happened since that time. The first is the availability and popularity of many outside sources of information which have started to erode the illusion that Blacks have to vote Democrat. I'll mention just two of them.

The first is a movement to leave the Democrat Party, started by young and charismatic Candace Owens, which is also known as Blexit (think Black Exit). The second is the #Walk Away campaign (walk away from the Democrat Party) which shows thousands of homemade testimonials which combined have many millions of views where people (I would say at least half of them either Blacks or Hispanic) tell about their "red pill" moment. Go to YouTube and check out #Walk Away.

Those type of influences, combined with a strong economy, rising wages, historically low Black unemployment and much more are indications that President Trump's support from Blacks may be much higher than the 15% currently predicted for 2020. A Rasmussen poll done in August this year showed a 32% job approval rating from Blacks for the President.

Another factor to consider is the Ecumenical vote. In 2016 we had a situation where there were 3 things about Trump that they had concerns about. Those were his past behaviors including sexual infidelities, his lack of Christian character that he portrayed publicly, and a nagging feeling that he was actually a liberal in sheep clothing. The votes President Trump got from the Ecumenical community were received because those that did vote recognized that there was no chance that Clinton would support any policy that was deeply important to them but there was at least somewhat of a chance that they would be under a Trump Presidency.

But here is the deal you should be aware of. A heck of a lot of Ecumenicals did not vote for president or they voted for a write-in candidate. Today any behavior by Trump that we know about before he got elected is no longer a concern to that group. His brash manner still is but in large part is discounted because of a number of factors. And because President Trump has followed through on all of his conservative promises and has championed religious freedom and pro life positions there will be a huge increase of Ecumenical votes cast for Trump in 2020.

There has also been a sea change of where and how people receive their information. Cable news has been on a long decline but viewership for outlets like CNN and MSNBC have been dropping like a stone. A recent poll showed that only 6% of the population has any trust that the MSM is unbiased. There are now numerous Conservative sites such as The Daily Wire that have razor sharp commentators and millions of more views than an outlet like CNN. The MSM's 95% negative coverage from day one of Trump has greatly contributed to their soon coming death.

One way we can gauge this is by noticing that although impeachment has been a political strategy for the Left since the day of Trump's election, that after 2 1/2 years of their made up Russian accusations and now a month of their Ukraine gambit, impeachment is near the bottom of the average American's concerns. Almost everybody in the fly over states know what the deal is not and many actually suspect that in the end the Left and the DNC are going to end up holding the bag.

Which leads to my last point. Progressives are the loud and vocal part of the Democrat party. My guess is they comprise less than a third of this countries voting electric but that means they have a majority of the influence in their party. It has been noted that the concerns of a large section of traditional Democrat voters, such as those in the traditional manufacturing blue states, has been ignored by the radical Left. A good number switched and voted Republican in 2016 and I would bet that they were just the tip of the iceberg of the switch we will see in 2020.

The lack of any moderate voices in the MSM, or from the leaders of the Democratic Party, or from any of the current crop of Presidential candidates has exposed their true Progressive agenda which I believe in the end will result in either a split or an implosion of the Democrat Party from which it may take them decades to recover.

So get yourselves ready for a visit to a nice relaxing spa. We are not just talking Trump 2020. Get ready for a President Pence 2024.   

Does Solar Power Make Sense For Me?

Today I read an article talking about California's wildfires and their effect on California's energy grid. When the terrible fires happened last year many people believed that a number of those fires were caused by sparks that came from power lines. This led to law suits which led to the main electric provide in Northern California turning off the power grid this year during certain high fire risk periods. Today there are wide areas in Northern California without electric power.

One of the surprises that came from this is that many people who were equipped with solar panels found out that their solar systems would not provide any electricity to their homes during a power outage. That is because the typical solar system does not store the electricity it produces into a battery system from which the house then draws upon but rather transfers produced electricity into the electrical grid of the power company. Thus without an electrical storage system and without the house being wired to directly utilize solar power there will not be electricity for the home to use.

When a home system is producing electricity under the typical system the home's electric meter slows down accordingly and the home owner is only charged for any excess current they use. If the power company accepts what is known as Net Metering and the home system produces more current that what the home uses for a month then the power company will credit that amount to the home owner's electric bill. The one catch to that is that while the electric company charges it's customer a retail rate they often only credit them for excess production at a wholesale rate which is substantially lower.

But finding that out did get me thinking about what would be my cost here in West Michigan to install a roof solar panel system and how long would the actual payback be. I have not talked to any solar provider companies or any actual people who currently have roof top solar panels but I have done a little research and here is what I have discovered.

Checking my electric bill from the local Board of Public Works I found that during the last 12 months I used in my 1300 sq. ft. house 7115 kW hours of electricity. The overall BPW charge for our electric figures out to be .127 per kW hr. My annual electric usage equaled $904. Michigan prices for electric are usually a bit higher than the national average. A little over a year ago our BPW finished building a new power plant and converted from coal to natural gas which is supposed to be much cleaner and less expensive.

According to what I was able to find out on line the average solar customer installs a 6200 kW system which would seem about right if my annual usage is 7115 kW's. In Michigan the average cost for roof top solar panels is $4.11 per kW. That means a 6200 kW installation would cost me if I paid in cash $25,482. I don't know if that is before or after taxes.

For some reason the government has offered pretty big incentives for people to install solar power. This seems pretty much a crock to me for a whole lot of reasons, about which I could write from here to the end of next week. However, let's get back to what my cost would be to install solar.

Until the end of 2019 the Federal Government will, if you install a solar system this year, reduce what you would owe in taxes this year up to 30% of what it costs you to install a solar system. In 2020 that amount reduces to 26%, in 2021 I'm not sure but I think it's something like 20% and the incentive program expires at the end of 2021. Maybe something else will come up but if I am thinking about solar I either need to do something soon or hope that a breakthrough in technology would make an investment practical.

There also may be local incentives offered by my city or even by the BPW to become more energy efficient.  I'm not sure if or what those are but perhaps they can add up to another $4 - 6 thousand dollars. I'm not going to include those numbers below but you are welcome to do the math yourselves later on.

So let's say I decide on installing a $25,482 6200 kW system next year. I would need to pay the full amount, and then to qualify for the 26%, $6000 plus government money, make sure to withhold that much from my 2020 tax estimates which will then reduce my tax owed by April 15 of 2021 by that amount. Thus after a year if I install in the Spring the actual cost for the system would be $19,366.

To figure the length of pay back I multiply 6200 kW hrs per year X my BPW rate of .129 kW hr. which equals an annual savings on my electric bill of $787. And at $787 per year it would take me 25 years to break even. Solar systems are supposed to be good for 25 years so in theory every year after that my electric bill would be only $117 per year. 

There are however a few things to consider with solar. On the plus side, what I pay for electric may very well go up during those 25 years which would increase the amount I would be saving and thus reduce the actual payback period.

On the other hand there are a few negatives to consider. Apart from possible maintenance costs, like equipment breakdowns, cleaning, snow and tree branch removal, and the need to spend $10 -12 thousand dollars on new roof shingles before solar installation, there are solar energy efficiency questions when living in West Michigan and where I live in particular. A 6200 kW system might possibly produce 6200 kW's per year in a place like Arizona. But where I live we get a lot of clouds, a fair amount of snow, there are woods west of us across the street  which block direct sunlight for the last hour of the day, and the trees near us produce a fair amount of pollen. I don't know how to actually calculate all of this but if my panels produce only 60% of capacity then my annual payback then becomes $472 which would equal a 41 year pay back.

Since I will turn 70 next year solar does not seem to be something that I will get too excited about.

Most of the information I could find on line whether solar is a good investment comes one way or another from companies that want to sell and install their solar panels. Each one assures me how wonderful a system would be. After watching U Tube videos of people who have installed systems I have come to the conclusion that the actual reason, apart from those that live off grid and need solar, or perhaps those who live in very sunny areas where the costs might be much different, is that installing solar makes them fell good about themselves.

They ignore the fact that Chinese miners earning slave wages dig out the dirty materials currently needed for solar panel production. They buy into the claim that man made CO2 is somehow any different than naturally produced CO2 (CO2 being the food that all plants eat) and buy into a claim, despite historic evidence showing the opposite, that any warming of the planet will be a disaster and must have been caused by the actions of man and can likewise be reduced by the actions of man.

But like I said, I'm almost 70. If I could invest now for something that would have a decent return much earlier and reduce what I would need to pay for utilities when I finally stop working it would be worth it. Hmm, maybe I'll check out wind. 
 

Impeach! Impeach!

Impeach! Impeach! Well, well, how did we get here, what does this all mean and how will this all play out? Hopefully I will be able to shed a little insight that will make things a bit clearer on what has been going on and what will be happening.

Let me start by taking a quick look at the Obama presidency. Although he ran as a centrist, Barack Obama's voting record when he was in the Senate was to the extreme far left of the spectrum. When he became our President his actions thus proved to be far left. This should not have been a surprise to anyone who would have looked past the nice suits, attractive family and smooth talking blah blah and done a little research.

His father's politics in Kenya were Anti-Colonial. His father believed that Western powers had robbed third world countries like his of their resources and should be punished for such. His politics were also Anti-Capitalist or Socialist/Communist which is reflected by his belief that the rich should pay 100% in taxes and only receive an amount back from the government sufficient to live on. It is interesting that Barack Obama wrote a book that was titled - Dreams Of My Father. Obama's mother also had hard leftest leanings as can be determined by the politics of the church she belonged to in Hawaii.

Sometime after Barack's father left his mother to go back to Kenya she married a man from Indonesia where she and her son moved. In Indonesia Barack was educated during his elementary years in a religious Muslim school. She sent him back to Hawaii during his high school years to live with her parents. It was during or shortly after that time that he was introduced to and was mentored by Frank L Davis, a leading African American member and thinker in the Communist Party in America. Later on during his college years in California most of his room mates and organizations he belonged to were politically on the radical spectrum. Not much is known about his politics or associations while at law school at Harvard but then, apart from his being the editor of the Harvard Law Review, almost no one can be found who remembers or is willing to share that they remember going to class with him.

After Obama came to Chicago he is well known for having been a community organizer. On it's face value that sounds like a noble occupation and indeed it can be, helping the poor and disenfranchised to do better with food, housing, clothing, medical care and helping them have a greater voice over their affairs. But there can be a radical political aspect involved in community organizing as evidenced by the methods of famous Chicago community organizer Saul Alansky.

In 1971, the year before he died, Alansky wrote a book called Rules For Radicals. Its ten chapters laid out Alansky's insights about how confrontation can produce desired results. Later on in the community organization community there was debate as to how effective Alansky's rules actually were in practice but the book and its principles did become famous in the world of the radical left. At the University of Chicago Barack Obama taught a course called Alansky 101, so we know he was quite familiar with Alansky's radical teachings. Oh by the way, in the book Alansky dedicates it to someone called Lucifer (no kidding!)

Here is a partial list of Alansky's main principles. Notice two things here. First, the other side is referred to as "the enemy". Second, see if any of these tactics ring a bell when you think of the how the Democrats have resisted form day one and continue to resist the presidency of Donald Trump, the Kavanaugh hearings, the Russia hearings and their constant calls for impeachment.

"Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have".

"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules".

"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon".

"Keep the pressure on".

"The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself".

"The major premise for tactics is the development of opportunities that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition".

"If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counter side".

"Pick the target, freeze it, polarize it".   


Barack Obama eventually moved to the same neighborhood and was on one of the same boards as Bill Ayers, former leader of the Weatherman Underground, a radical 1970's group that among other things bombed the Pentagon and Capitol building. The church Obama belonged to for 20 years had definite leftest leanings. I could on and on along the same vein but I think I've made the point that it seemed to me pretty clear, even before he was elected, that Barack Obama if chosen would try to radically change not only US foreign policy and US domestic policy but would also appoint and place in positions of power men and women with the same mind set as his.

The part of interest for us here is not President Obama's foreign or domestic policies. I think from what we know about his past and from what he showed while being President is that he is at heart a Marxist and was smart enough to have both a short term and a long term plan for how to radically transform our country. I also strongly suspect that despite our hearing almost nothing about President Obama for the last 3 years that he is in fact the key person leading a behind the scenes opposition to President Trump and his administration. You should be aware that there is a select group of power people that meet every day in private, either in person or via devices, that determine both tactics and each day's talking points, that are then relayed to the press and to key Democrat leaders in Congress. 

There are some interesting things that happened while President Obama was in office that demonstrate his efforts to ensure that his opponents would not be successful in gaining power.

The main one that comes to mind is how he used the IRS to delay and refuse applications for almost every conservative political group that tried to obtain non taxable status.

Another well known one is the activity of Susan Rice and others toward the last days of his administration to unmask identities of quite a large number of his political opponents so that people in his administration would have access to their private conversations (I think that might be called "spying" on your political opponents).

And a third one that is coming to light is the effort to use the FBI and CIA along with their foreign contacts, to both spy on candidate Trump and everyone connected with him but also to set up sophisticated operations designed to eventually remove him from power in case he would actually win. People have blamed Hillary Clinton's campaign for spending 9 million to finance the fake dossier that the intelligence agencies then used to obtain FISA warrants of Trump's people, but I believe it actually goes much deeper than that.

Let me make this very clear. There were and still are people appointed or hired by President Obama in the intelligence community who are actively opposed to President Trump, not just because he is a Republican but because he is an outsider who is threatening both their power and globalist worldview. Many of these people, previously so comfortable in their arrogance, are now becoming increasingly frightened that their secret activities will be exposed.

There will soon be reports released that will lay a lot of this out. The guilty parties have the full support of the main stream media so everything will be twisted in the news and there will be a full blown attempt to impeach and discredit Attorney General Barr. I would like to believe that all those that have taken part in this coup attempt against the President will get the punishment they deserve. I would like to believe that the main stream media itself will be exposed and eventually be replaced by honest men and women without political bias. Can all of this happen without a revolution or civil unrest? I sure pray so.

Cries for impeachment today are a desperate ploy to circumvent the ballot box. After all we do have another election in about a year. These last three years have pulled the veil off the political faces of the far left, the never Trump right and others in Washington and have totally destroyed any confidence we ever had in the main stream media. By God's grace we now know much clearer their desire for an atheistic utopia that sees Conservatives, Christians and the Constitution as  "enemies" that need to be discarded.

The good news is that a light does shine in the darkness and that God is using the events of the day to bring out a deep and widespread spiritual change in this country. There are dark spiritual forces behind all the lies and shouting and their desperation is a sign that they know a change is coming.

Pray for our President for wisdom and grace. Pray for all those in authority over us that they will be sensitive to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Pray for your enemies that His light will shine so bright that their hearts will be open to coming to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. And pray for a spirit of repentance to flood our land as an invitation for the presence of God to fall upon us.