Have I crossed over to another dimension? Leaving a rational world for one where a few people with the goal of fixed outcomes are leading majorities by the nose is routine—the week started with eight Republican malcontents relieving their house leader of his role as speaker. Four percent of the House GOP achieved their goal of taking down a leader supported by the other 96%. 

This minute faction claimed to act as fiscal conservatives, demanding more budget cuts than the agreement the leader negotiated with the Democrats to keep the government open. This assertion is false. These people are Trump followers. The same Trump who spent trillions we didn’t have in an unnecessary COVID Lockdown. The one who still puts entitlements, two-thirds of the budget, off-limits.

Paul Ryan was the last Republican leader willing to reform Social Security and Medicare. Trump never supported him in the only way to get control of government spending. The ex-president even backed closing down the government while limiting cuts to less than a third of the budget. As I pointed out in my last post, Trump is no true conservative. Neither are his lackeys.

The eight are self-promoters pursuing their agendas while claiming moral superiority over the other house members. Yet these frauds achieved their goal. What now?

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz led the overthrow. It is impossible to believe he moved without Trump’s tacit approval. The ex-president didn’t lift a finger to save McCarthy. Instead, Trump has endorsed his acolyte, Jim Jordan, for speaker.

A sycophant serving at Trump’s pleasure could destroy the party. It may be time. We surely can’t go on this way. You deserve to be under the thumb of the eight if you’re unwilling to take former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s advice and oust the eight.

Why anyone would want Trump’s endorsement, in any case, is a mystery to me. Many receiving it lost winnable elections, and those that did win, Trump claims, owe him endless loyalty. This obsequiousness is not what you want in a speaker of the house. Jordan should tell Trump thanks, but no thanks. He only wants the votes of his fellow Republican House members. So far, we are still waiting to hear that from Jordan.

This week, Ford moved the Auto strike closer to resolution by pledging to unionize its new battery plants. We broadly embed Electric vehicles (EVs), windmills, and solar panels in our economy. Most people want something other than this battery-dependent stuff. A green minority makes it harder to go in more economical and sensible directions.

In my last post, I showed windmills aren’t a reasonable or desirable solution. Big, heavy batteries are necessary to cover the failings of EVs, Solar panels, and windmills. 

Because of this situation, EVs are unworkable for heavy long-distance transport. Yet our economy depends on it. This need explains the push for hydrogen-powered planes, trucks, and ships, even though there are problems of cost, volatility, and infrastructure. Unlike the battery dependent, the market is sparking innovation to overcome these issues. 

New, more efficient electrolyzers are coming to market. Exploration for Natural hydrogen is widening. Remember, necessity is the mother of invention. A fleet of hydrogen trucks will mean accessible supplies coast to coast, not by government subsidy, but for the same reason we have gas stations.-only now they’ll add hydrogen. 

This outcome might leave union members and EV owners in a very awkward place—all those resources devoted to batteries stranded.

The same fate may be in store for Windmills and solar panels. Their power is only reliable with backup plants or huge batteries. If you still need natural gas or nuclear plants for when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine, why have expensive redundant power sources? 

The advances in hydrogen, nuclear, and nuclear fusion make a simpler carbon-free future closer. Businesses needing lots of stable power are looking to nuclear. Since fusion has shown excess energy, the race is on to apply this fantastic power source. Again, there is the possibility of enormous stranded people and resources in EVs, windmills, and solar panels.

Just as the market dictated a shift from coal to natural gas in the US, this plentiful resource should have a chance to provide needed power to emerging areas at a reasonable price while replacing coal, wood, and dung. With the ever-present need for energy to improve lives, China is still building new coal plants at home and abroad. As Lonburg and Konin have pointed out, achieving our carbon goals is impossible if these other nations continue adding coal capacity. 

Our knowledge and capabilities in oil and gas, such as fracking, could provide a transition to less carbon while allowing people to progress. 

Why, then, have we let an interested minority devote trillions to some narrow, inefficient options? Like the self-possessed eight Republicans in Congress, have they thought any of their actions through?

When I started writing about alternatives to battery-dependent power, it appeared far off, but now there is evident progress in these other options. With AI and the possibility of huge rewards, the market will have its say.

So many of our problems stem from small groups finding ways to impose their preferred solutions on the rest of us. Biological men are competing in women’s sports and using their restrooms. Patently false history is taught to our children while they are subject to age-inappropriate sex lessons. These actions occur while our children fall further behind in the three Rs.

Luckily, we can still express our choices in the US in a free market. If you push stuff on us we don’t want, we don’t have to drink your beer, patronize your parks, or buy your EVs. Our children can skip regular public schools in many states.

We will lose this power if we march further down the path to a command economy. It’s time to expose these self-absorbed groups peddling irrational solutions rather than those offered by free markets. We need to protect minorities, not be subjugated by them.