My Point of View by John Forman

 

In the military, there is a saying that the Army is always preparing to fight the last war. This means they are not preparing to meet the new enemy tactics: World War I trench warfare, World War II tanks and aircraft, Korea jets, combat being controlled by politicians, Vietnam gorilla forces and even more political control. President Trump wants a space agency under the Air Force, and people push back that we have not had war in space before, but the use of spy satellites is one of the ways we see what the enemies are doing in the Middle East, as well as Russia, North Korea and China. If we were to have an altercation with one of our more-developed enemies, the first thing they would do is try to blind our satellites. We need the ability to defend them. We know they are working on anti-satellite technology in Russia and China.

The military is not the only one to ignore the present to use the past to set up a defense in the future. The Democrats are looking to investigate President Trump out of office or at least keep him from being re-elected based on things that happened before the election and were done by people before they were associated with the election. They want to rely on their friends at the top in the Justice Department and not the people to determine the outcome of the last and the next election. They think that by fighting the 2016 election all over again, they can change the outcome or get a Democrat elected in 2020. They do not want anyone to mention the gains that have resulted from President Trump’s election: rising stock market, lower unemployment — especially minority and female numbers — increases in hourly wages and an increase in number of people returning to the workforce. They know if the message of the successes of capitalism get out, it will hurt the new Democratic Party push for socialism like that in Cuba and Venezuela.

We also see the anti-renewable energy people using examples of past history rather than present-day facts to fight wind and solar power. They want to say wind is expensive and has to have government subsidies, but do not want anyone to know that wind has become inexpensive enough that wind turbines erected later this year will not be eligible for subsidies. The new wind turbines are more than five times more efficient than those built 10 years ago and can produce more electricity with less turbines. They mention birds being killed by turbines when first erected many years ago, but fail to mention new rules require planning for wildlife and bird migratory patterns and do no allow turbines in those areas now. The Audubon Society backs wind turbines due to the harm done to the environment and to birds by burning fossil fuels. They talk about loss of power during cold weather and storms but fail to mention that more power was lost off the grid from frozen coal and cold weather breakdown than was lost from wind turbines. Natural gas demand by homes caused lower power production at natural gas power plants. They also fail to mention we already have technology to store electricity, and this technology will only get better over the next 20 years. The stored electricity will help fill the gaps in production.

It’s time to plan for the future and use present-day facts and figures to reach our goals.

John Forman is a member of the Freeborn County Republican Party.