Farewell, Dear Readers.

Dear Friends and Readers,

Today is my final post. I made the decision some time ago but decided to await the tenth anniversary of my first post to retire from political blogging (nearly 3000 posts later). On October 15, 2010, I wrote, “I feel very strongly that this country is headed in the wrong direction. By that I mean it is heading away from its founding principles. This has been happening for a long time but the acceleration in the wrong direction under Barack Obama has been breathtaking.”

Well, Obama is gone and we were lucky enough to have a new President who puts America first. However, I am sad to say that the nation did not begin to heal and realize the importance of our constitution and the brilliance of our founding fathers. Indeed, things are worse.

The foundation of our nation strongly depended on a free press. That no longer exists. The “free press” has become a wing of the Democrat Party. 

Goebbels knew that the way to take over a nation was to win the minds of the youth of the nation. Our colleges have simply become another wing of the Democrat Party.

A friend, DT, and political blogger also, shared an editorial by Tom Klingenstein with me. I will draw from Mr. Klingenstein’s excellent piece. It is important that my readers understand that I did not choose the name The Rugged Individualist hastily. I believe the American Way is founded on individual rights, the rule of law, and a shared understanding of the common good. It is a way of life that values hard work and self-reliance.

By contrast, the modern leftists see our nation through the prism of “identity politics” or “intersectionality.” I have written many times about “identity politics” and its dangers. But I never realized just how dangerous it was.

As Mr. Klingenstein points out so appropriately, the leftist agenda “is a revolutionary movement. I do not mean a metaphorical revolution. It is not like a revolution; it is a revolution, an attempt to overthrow the American Founding…”

Political junkies like myself always hear this refrain every leap year: “This is the most important vote you will cast in your lifetime.” But, when they are tearing down statues of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass then we are truly voting for the difference between the America espoused by the “1619 project” versus the 1776 project that has worked ever so hard to live up to the magnificent prose of Thomas Jefferson (yet another great American who must be vilified).

I did not vote for President Trump to be my spiritual counselor, to teach me rhetoric, or because he was a silver-tongued orator. (Indeed, Obama was a “silver-tongued orator” and he was the worst president EVER.) As Mr. Klingenstein observes, “Above all else, and above anyone else, Trump is committed to America. He is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-America. He feels no guilt for America’s past. He makes no apologies. He concedes nothing. These may not always be the attributes one wants in a President, but in this day of woke guilt they are the most essential things. And Trump has unlimited confidence in America.”

Amen to that, Mr. Klingenstein!

The America that I know and love is definitely not “systemically racist.” If the Americans that I know and respect are anything, they are systemically committed to freedom and equal rights for all.

Although I am retiring as a political blogger I still believe what I wrote in my first post: “It matters little to me whether anyone ever reads what I write, but the need within me to write about my perceptions is profound. An argument needs to be made. Every individual needs to speak out, if only to say ‘I disagree.’”

May God help and save this wonderful nation from the fools who cannot understand how fortunate they are to be an AMERICAN (no hyphenation ALLOWED)!

Roy Filly

And these are the people that will elect Joe Biden.

These college students are asked a series of questions about our nation’s history and current politics. The answers (or, more accurately, their inability to answer) sheds a great deal of light on our “electorate.”

http://safeshare.tv/w/oHbxeOtsOP

And thanks to RH for sending this to me.

Roy Filly

Politics in cartoon form.

Forget “packing the court” (although I believe Biden will do it), there is a lot more about which to be concerned.

Yeah, right! Perhaps incompetence will save us.

The Pelosi “quiver.” Remind me, please, has she yet to decry the violence of the left -wing mobs?

How could anyone vote for a party that espouses defunding the police?

The strangest thing about this election is that this bizarre strategy appears to be working.

Not only has Newsome banned gas-driven cars, but now he’s looking at banning natural gas.

Perhaps it is the black community that will save this election.

Harry Reid was warned… but, of course, people like Harry never look to the future. He and his ilk are only concerned about the next vote.

No explanation required!

Kaboom!

Roy Filly

Biden can’t even READ what he is supposed to say!

Bill O’Reilly had this item that I never saw on any news outlet. Biden is literally reading from a page (obvious to anyone looking at this video) and makes these egregious errors. Anyone who thinks he is not suffering from early dementia is fooling themselves.

And thanks to HKG for sending this to me.

Roy Filly

Incontrovertible evidence that “systemic racism” is a myth.

You hear it all of the time on the left-wing media outlets. The United States of America is plagued by “systemic racism.” If you Google “systemic racism in the US,” you get 69,400,000 results. Look again! More than 69 MILLION results. It must be true if Uncle Google says so.

If minorities were systematically downtrodden, how could any succeed, let alone excel. Black Lives Matter (BLM) tells us that America discriminates against all “people of color.” By that, they mean people who are Black, Hispanic or any other race that is not white. Furthermore, we are informed that this has been true since 1619.

[Source: No, the United States Is Not Systemically Racist. By Stephen Moore]

Therefore, the second half of the 20th century certainly fits into that time frame. Indeed, during that time frame, Jim Crow laws had yet to be eradicated. Therefore, BLM must explain to me how it is that:

• Black people in the United States experienced much larger income gains than whites did.
• How could the group that had the largest income gains, by far, be black women? (Their incomes nearly doubled over that period even after adjusting for inflation). 
• Black incomes rose more in last three years (President Trump’s tenure to date) than at any time in the history of the United States.
• The median household income for Blacks is now $45,438. Few, if any, other nations on Earth demonstrate a higher average Black income than the United States.
• Black poverty rates have fallen to the lowest level ever recorded. 

Those are the statistics for black Americans (and it is true that black Americans have yet to obtain parity with white Americans). But, there are other “people of color” that according to BLM suffer from “systemic racism.” That seems awfully difficult to believe when the highest-income group in America today is not white Americans. It is the Asian community. The median household income of Asian Americans is $98,174. In other words, the average Asian family has a higher income than the average white family ($65,902)… by a lot! 

As well, Asian Americans are a highly diverse group. They came to America (and usually dirt poor) from Japan, Korea, India, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, etc. How is it possible that they could race ahead of white Americans in a milieu of “systemic racism?”

Well, you might ask, “What about Hispanic Americans?” Good question. Hispanics are doing very well in America. The average Hispanic household income exceeds $56,000 a year today. That’s not rich — but it is a massive leap forward from what Hispanics earn in Mexico. The highest earning quintile in Mexico (not the average Mexican family) brought home an average of $36,588. The average family in El Salvador earns $19,884.

Is BLM telling us that Mexico and El Salvador discriminate against Hispanics? The gains of Hispanics in just the last three years, under President Trump, have been extraordinary. 

Could these statistics have occurred in a nation that hates ethnic minorities? Could these statistics have occurred in a xenophobic country? The answer is too obvious to commit to paper.

Roy Filly

What is Trump’s record on the environment?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler delivered remarks at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) where he discussed environmental achievements over the past four years. It is incontrovertible that today the environment is in better shape under President Trump than when he took office. 

• Since 2017, air pollution in this country has fallen 7 percent.
• Last year, EPA delisted 27 Superfund sites, the most in a single year since 2001, and the Trump EPA will delist 27 more sites this year.
• EPA has helped finance more than $40 billion dollars in clean water infrastructure, supporting 7,100 high priority projects.
• The Trump EPA has recovered more criminal and civil penalties for enforcement in its first term than the Obama-Biden Administration did in their first term. 

President Trump left the Paris Climate Accords because it treated the U.S. economy unfairly. So what has happened in the interval:

• The U.S. has seen a 15 percent reduction in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions since 2005.
• The U.S. cut its greenhouse gas emissions, measured in tons, more than Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada combined. China, meanwhile, has increased their emissions by over 50 percent since 2005.

The Trump EPA is finalizing at least 8 major rulemakings before the end of his first term including the Navigable Waters Rule, the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, and the Lead and Copper rule. Further, the Obama administration left office with the largest backlog of unfinished EPA business in the agency’s history.

• During the final four years of the Obama Administration, an enormous backlog of unprocessed permits of all kinds was built up.
• The Trump administration inherited a backlog of 700 State Implementation Plans.
• The Trump EPA has since taken action on over 500 of these submittals.
• Concerning water pollution, the backlog of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, which regulates point sources of pollution in U.S. waters, has been reduced 32 percent from 2017.
• With regard to Superfund sites, the Trump EPA, in his first term alone, reduced the total number of full and partial sites by 82 sites. This is equal to the 8-year total of the Obama administration.

And thanks to HP for sending this to me.

Roy Filly

You can learn a lot from graphs.

FYI. I’m not a fan of debt, but this graphic is a bit scary.

Advanced economies just surpassed the debt to GDP ratio at the end of World War II.

This happened in a mere 15 years. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Do you?

So, inflation?!?! The average price of a home only increased 20 times since 1963.

Of the top 8 universities in the world, 6 are in the US. Too bad they are all ultraliberal.

I own an Apple watch. I’m not saying I’m a huge fan… I’m not, but this is amazing!

The tourism industry is in a very bad way. However, the desire for humans to see the world in which they live will return. I am 100% confident of that.

Roy Filly

A look at the economy Trump created. Pretty astounding.

We have been through a pandemic unlike any we have experienced in a century. The economic shutdown did significant damage to our economy. I hope that Americans realize that the economic downturn was the result of the pandemic and not the fault of our President. It behooves us to look at the US economy before the pandemic hit us (and after it hit, as well).

When we look at the Trump economy, startling is the word that comes to my mind, and I am not easily startled. The Census Bureau published its report for 2019. It is indisputable that the Trump economy was stellar. There may not have been a better economy in our past.

[Sources: The Startling news about Trump’s economy that mainstream media ignored, by Andy Pudzer; US household wealth hits record despite coronavirus pandemic, by Megan Henney]

Let’s look at the data:

• Real median household income grew to $68,703 in 2019, an impressive 6.8% increase over 2018 – the largest one-year increase in median income on record going back to 1967.
• As Biden is running against President Trump it is important to compare this with the Obama/Biden years. In this single year real median household income grew 45 percent more ($4,379) than Obama/Biden produced in their entire 8 years in office ($3,021).

Of course, the Democrats always say that it was the rich who benefitted while all others were “left behind.” So let’s look at those statistics:

• Recall that the overall growth rate was 6.8%.
• Real median income for black Americans grew by an even greater 7.9%.
• Hispanic Americans also exceeded the avaerage at 7.1%.
• Asian Americans fared even better with a real median income growth of 10.6%.
• And, in case you were wondering, these were also all record highs.

Now, let’s turn to the latest data which includes the economic devastation of the pandemic. Let me reiterate, the following is from the LAST QUARTER of 2020, not 2019, when Americans’ household wealth hit a record high. According to new data released by the Federal Reserve, American households’ collective net worth climbed nearly 7% in the April-June quarter to $119 trillion. That’s up from $111 trillion in the first quarter, when the pandemic triggered an unprecedented shutdown of the nation’s economy. 

Let’s return for a moment to the oft quoted Democrat talking point that “the Trump tax cuts benefitted only the rich.” Let’s focus on the impoverished. In 2019, the poverty rate plummeted 1.3 percentage points to a 60 year low of 10.5%. This was the largest reduction in poverty in over 50 years. (Footnote on the 50th anniversary of the Democrat War on Poverty.) More than 4.1 million Americans were lifted out of poverty (largest yearly decrease since 1966). And perhaps the moderator of the presidential debate should ask why the number of people living in poverty under Obama/Biden increased by 787,000.

Again, let’s look at minorities:

• Recall, the overall poverty rate declined 1.3%.
• Black American poverty fell by 2.0%.
• Hispanic poverty fell by 1.8%.
• Asian poverty fell by 2.8%.

And, in case you were wondering again, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, “the poverty rate fell to an all-time record low for every race and ethnic group in 2019.” Child poverty decreased to the lowest level since 1973 and down from 18 percent at the end of the Obama/Biden era. (Please read the post linked in the footnote.)

And for the “income inequality” crowd, surely Trump’s economic policies “to benefit the rich” must have increased it. Well, it didn’t. Income inequality declined for the second consecutive year.

And thank to RL for sending this to me.

Roy Filly

Footnote: When Johnson started the “War on Poverty,” Sargent Shriver, a key Johnson advisor on poverty issues, argued that we could set 1976 as “the target date for ending poverty in this land.” On the 50th anniversary of The War on Poverty the net reduction of poverty in the United States after a $15 trillion investment was ZERO!

The War on Poverty at age 50. How is that going?

Who are the medically uninsured Americans?

Obamacare is potentially on its way out. The pending Supreme Court case and the election will determine its fate. Although Biden has not endorsed “Medicare for All” the issue of health care will be a hot topic in this campaign. It already is.

Preexisting conditions is the most common buzz phrase, but “losing your health insurance” is a close second. So an associated issue is “the uninsured.” Here’s some data to help you sort truth from politics.

[Source: The Cost of Sacrificing Public, Private Health Insurance for ‘Medicare for All.” by Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Robert E. Moffit]

Although Biden hasn’t endorsed it, there is little question that the Democrat Party wants Medicare for All. A majority of House Democrats are co-sponsoring legislation (HR 1384) to outlaw virtually all Americans’ public and private health insurance and Bernie Sanders’ Senate Bill 1129 (“Medicare for All”) is intended to accomplish the same objective.

Today, about 30 million American residents are uninsured. Let’s take a look at “the uninsured.”

• Approximately 15 million of them are already eligible for coverage under Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Obamacare, but did not enroll.
• Another 4 million are eligible for employer-sponsored insurance, but do not enroll.
• At least 4 million are here illegally and thus ineligible for taxpayer-financed coverage.
• 2 million have annual incomes that exceed 400% of the federal poverty level ($103,000 for a family of four) and are ineligible for Obamacare insurance subsidies, but chose not to purchase health insurance.

Only 2.5 million of the uninsured are poor Americans who live in states that didn’t expand Medicaid. Do we need to upend our system of employer-sponsered health insurance for 8 tenths of one percent of the population? Isn’t there a more directed method to deal with these individulas?

Apparently, those in favor of Medicare for All care little about costs. In just the first 10 years Medicare for All will cost somewhere between $54.6 trillion and $60.7 trillion (according to Charles Blahous, a former Medicare trustee).

Also, anyone who believes that Medicare is “free” is in for an unwelcome surprise. As well, last year my personal Medicare premium went up 6% even though overall inflation was 2.3%.

Roy Filly

 

No more fossil fuels! Let’s just think about that for a moment.

If you are as tired as I am of reading posts about COVID-19, perhaps it’s time to wonder about something else. If the Climate Alarmists intend to rid the world of man-caused CO2 emissions, exactly how would that work? We also need to consider what the world around us would look like if we were to fully adopt wind and solar energy to power our nation.

Green New Deal or no Green New Deal, we already have cities, states, and nations planning to banish the use of oil, natural gas, and coal within 10, 20 or 30 years.

• Cities include Berkely, CA, Takoma Park, MD, among others.
• States include California, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and others.
• Nations include Germany and England.
• Additionally, a number of US states have joined the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

[Source: How Exactly Do They Plan to Ban Fossil Fuels? By Paul Driessen]

If you have been following my posts you know that I have presented a great deal of data that belies the “climate crisis” frenzy. (Footnote) But how do these zealots plan to get us to zero emissions? I recently posted an illuminating expose showing that wind and solar energy are far from “green.” The video illustrates many of the points below.

What does it take to banish the use of oil, natural gas, and coal. The leftists are going to need:

• Wind turbines.
• Solar panels.
• And lots and lots of batteries (unless they plan to run our modern society with frequent power disruptions).
• And let us not forget the raw materials that must be mined to build these.

Importantly, these “zero-emission” plans do not only wish to replace today’s coal, natural gas, and oil power plant megawatts. They will need to at least double the output because they want to replace all fossil fuel use: gasoline and diesel cars, trucks and buses, home and water heating, factory power, and more. 

Indeed, in their wildest fantasies, they also wish to “rid the world” of nuclear or hydroelectric power. That would require tripling current megawatt generation. They are going to need a lot of wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries. 

The trouble is, they need to put those wind turbines and solar panels somewhere. Admittedly we do have lots of rural lands, wildlife habitats, and shallow waters off some of our coasts. Can’t we turn these into huge industrial energy zones? After all, we can’t put up 650-foot tall wind turbines and solar farms in our cities.

Therefore, these zealots will need to impose those facilities on our rural neighbors. So do you believe that these rural families can’t wait to have their scenery ruined, their ridgeline desecrated, their birds slaughtered, and to listen to the excruciatingly loud “infrasound.” And they are going to just love the hundreds of miles of new high voltage transmission lines crossing the landscape. (Weren’t those considered a health hazard not so long ago?)

Have these zealot politicians calculated how many wind turbines, solar panels, storage batteries, and miles of transmission lines they will need to replace all fossil fuels? And, of course, eventually, all of these turbines, solar panels, and batteries will need to be replaced. Have they calculated how many cubic miles of landfills they will need? 

Here is an estimate:

• Hundreds of 850-foot-tall 12-MW offshore turbines.
• Thousands of 2- or 3-MW onshore turbines.
• Tens of millions of solar panels
• Millions of half-ton 85-kWh Tesla battery packs as a backup for just one week of windless or sunless days. 
• And, let us not forget the millions of acres of former crop, scenic and wildlife habitat land mutilated by these eyesores.
• Oh, and yes. They will need millions of tons of steel, copper, cobalt, lithium, aluminum, rare earths, carbon-fiberglass-plastic composites, limestone, and other raw materials. Can any of the mining operation be done without fossil fuels? 

They tell us it will create new jobs (and, they are not kidding). We need to compare the efficiencies of these methods of energy production:

• Coal-fired power plants generate 7,745 megawatt-hours of electricity per mine and power plant worker.
• Natural gas generates 3,812 MWh per oil and gas field and utility worker.
• Further, the super high efficiency and resultant low-cost electricity sustain millions of jobs in manufacturing and countless other industries. 

Contrast these efficiencies with wind turbines. They produce a paltry 836 MWh for every employee. And, worse still, solar panels generate an abysmal 98 MWh per worker.

• It takes 79 solar workers to produce the same amount of electricity as one coal worker or two natural gas workers. 

So, city-dwelling leftists, don’t plan on any pleasant drives through the countryside in your Tesla Model S after you get your wish of “renewable energy.” There won’t be any “countryside” left!

Roy Filly

Footnote: (This is a small sample. If you search “global warming” on The Rugged Individualist” you will find more than 200 posts.)

“Lies, damn lies, and models” is the “correct” quote for global warming alarmism. Part II.

Biggest hit yet to global warming alarmism.

Global warming alarmists never miss an opportunity to step in it.

“Global Warming” and science.