Doing Something for the Earth Transcends Partisan Politics – Goldwater-TUSK

Tags

Abe Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, anti-slavery party, Arizona, Barry Goldwater, big nuclear, Big Oil, conservatives, corporate subsidies, debt, decentralized energy, Energy Independence, Entergy, Exelon, free enterprise, Freedom, Jr., media hacks, monopoly, nuclear utilities, off-grid, Pork Barrel, ratepayer, Republican Party, Republican Party Roots, Republican Politicians, Republicans, rooftop solar, Solar, solar panels, Taxpayer, Tea Party, TUSK, unfair business practices, utility industry

As Barry Goldwater Jr. points out, doing something for the earth transcends politics. The earth is in danger. Time to set aside partisanship, as in times of war, and save it. Then people can start quibbling about other things.

Nonetheless, the Nuclear industry-Nuclear research is pork barrel-Big Government on steroids and if Tea Party advocates are really opponents to taxes and big government, then they will have to be Green Tea Party. If they are pro-life, then they also have to be Green Tea, pro-solar, and against death dealing nuclear energy.

Unlike the UK, which will have to do an intelligent combo of renewables, the US could easily run off of solar and probably most homes be totally off-grid. With wind and biofuel, all American households could be off-grid. This has the Big Utility Monopolies, Big Nuclear and Big Oil scared and trying to undermine true energy independence. And, their paid media hacks are, not surprisingly, spouting lies in a last-ditch effort to save their corporate masters.

What the Media and Republican Politicians funded by and granting subsidies to Big Nuclear, Big Oil, and the Utilities don’t want people to know: The Green Tea Party and TUSK are a return to original American and Republican Party Values of Freedom, in every sense of the word.

Updates re Tusk activities all over the USA may be found here: http://dontkillsolar.com/tusk/
Unfortunately it’s not Creative Commons so here’s an article that is:
“Arizona Republicans Mobilizing Behind Solar MARCH 31, 2013
By Will Greene, Blog for Arizona

“I don’t think it has anything to do with politics or philosophy. I don’t know that you have to belong to a certain belief to want to do something for the earth.” – Barry Goldwater Jr., AZ Republic – March 28, 2013.

March 29th – We’ve known for years – it is hard to find a concept bringing more Arizonans together, regardless of political affiliation, than our state leading the way on solar energy (see here, here, here, and here). Now Arizona Republicans have a rock star flag-bearer ready to make sure the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) does not compromise progress already made to develop an industry of the future.

Ryan Randazzo reported yesterday that former Republican Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. is teaming up with publicist Jason Rose to defend and grow Arizona’s solar industry. Goldwater’s acknowledgment of the attendant benefits solar brings to the state, such as improved health and conservation of resources, shows he and Rose will not exclusively focus on the substantial economic opportunity solar energy represents. It remains to be seen how personally engaged Goldwater will become in ACC proceedings.

Goldwater and Rose are calling their effort TUSK (“Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed,”). Their focus will be upcoming net metering discussions at the ACC, with the solar industry literally hanging in the balance. The introduction of net metering in Arizona was a prerequisite for the existence of a solar industry in the state, and solar advocates are worried big changes could damage the industry leaving the state reliant on conventional fossil energy sources that must be imported from neighboring states. Net metering grants solar owners credits for feeding electricity back to the grid when their rooftop systems are generating more electricity than their home is consuming.

The TUSK announcement, coming on the heals of the demise of an idea proposed at the ACC to curtail Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard (REST) and a recent tongue-lashing in support of solar by a leading conservative voice in the state, leaves the future of solar looking a bit brighter than one would have supposed five months ago.

About the author: Will Greene
Will Greene is a clean energy advocate from Tempe, Arizona. He serves on the advocacy committee for Arizona Interfaith Power and Light (AZIPL), is a founder of Arizona Student Environmental Coalition (ASEC), and an ASU graduate with a degree in sustainability, business, and economics. He blogs about environment and energy at Blog for Arizona.” http://azcommunitypress.org/2013/03/31/arizona-republicans-mobilizing-behind-solar/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Now, if only Arizona would replace John McCain with Barry Goldwater, Jr. as Senator! McCain apparently even flunked history. McCain recently said that the US had been doing military exercises in the southwest for a couple of hundred years, whereas the area belonged to Mexico a couple of hundred years ago.

What Republicans funded by and granting subsidies to big nuclear and big oil don’t want people to know:

Green Tea and TUSK are a return to both American and Republican Party Values

Little known is that the US Civil War was about the unfair economic advantage that slave labor gave an industrializing south, as well as the agrarian south. This made an unfair playing field for both free farmers and businesses which had to pay workers. Surely for some it was about States’ Rights (as Southerners say) and for others an ethical quest to free the slaves (as Northerners say), but the over-riding reason must have been this unfair competition. The big planters seemed to have been in a constant westward-moving land-grab, as well. They also owned a growing enslaved population, as their slaves had children, who could work the new lands. If some few, not knowing what to do with the slaves, or having ethical qualms, freed them, others were greedy.

Abe Lincoln by Alex Gardner of Freedom-loving Paisley Scotland

“Founded by anti-slavery activists in 1854, the GOP dominated politics nationally and in most of the northern U.S. for most of the period between 1860 and 1932…

Early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan “free labor, free land, free men”, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio (and future Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Justice of the United States).[19] “Free labor” referred to the Republican opposition to slave labor and belief in independent artisans and businessmen. “Free land” referred to Republican opposition to plantation system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land, leaving the yeoman independent farmers the leftovers. The Party strived to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power and the expansion of freedom.[20]
…
The GOP supported business generally, hard money (i.e., the gold standard), high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, and (after 1893) the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans supported the pietistic Protestants who demanded Prohibition. As the northern post-bellum economy boomed with heavy and light industry, railroads, mines, fast-growing cities and prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth.

Nevertheless, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)

Sen. John Sherman (R—OH) was the principal author of the Sherman Antitrust Act:
“The Sherman Antitrust Act (Sherman Act,[1] 26 Stat. 209, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1–7) is a landmark federal statute in the history of United States antitrust law (or “competition law”) passed by Congress in 1890. It prohibits certain business activities that federal government regulators deem to be anti-competitive, and requires the federal government to investigate and pursue trusts.

It has since, more broadly, been used to oppose the combination of entities that could potentially harm competition, such as monopolies or cartels.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act

“After the two terms of Democrat Grover Cleveland, the election of William McKinley in 1896 is widely seen as a resurgence of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a realigning election. McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Panic of 1893, and that the GOP would guarantee a sort of pluralism in which all groups would benefit…

The 1896 realignment cemented the GOP as the party of big business, while Theodore Roosevelt added more small business support by his embrace of trust busting. He handpicked his successor William Howard Taft in 1908, but they became enemies on economic issues. Defeated by Taft for the 1912 nomination, Roosevelt bolted the party and led the third party ticket of the Progressive Party. The party returned to the White House throughout the 1920s, running on platforms of normalcy, business-oriented efficiency, and high tariffs. The national party avoided the prohibition issue after it became law in 1920.

Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were resoundingly elected in 1920, 1924, and 1928 respectively. The Teapot Dome scandal threatened to hurt the party but Harding died and Coolidge blamed everything on him, as the opposition splintered in 1924. The pro-business policies of the decade seemed to produce an unprecedented prosperity until the Wall Street Crash of 1929 heralded the Great Depression…”
Supposedly “Republicans strongly believe that free markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity. To this end, they advocate in favor of laissez-faire economics, fiscal conservatism,…“ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)
However, somewhere along the way the Republican Party became a party of big business and big government subsidies for the nuclear industry, big oil, and the military industrial complex; a party which distracted the people with the medical abortion issue and other social topics, while robbing the people blind. The Democratic Party also participates in this robbery, and increasingly so. Traditionally the Republican Party was supposed to be isolationist and not involve itself with imperialist wars, as well.

The nuclear industry is the biggest maker of abortions and formally totally ignores risks of the first 2 weeks of life, which they think don’t matter, even as couples spend money and time to get pregnant. Even for known to be pregnant women the nuclear industry accepts unnecessary exposure. If you have a miscarriage it is termed by doctors an “abortion”. By causing genetic damage-abnormalities the nuclear industry induces miscarriage-abortion, as well as often leading those who are unable to care for a seriously disabled child to seek abortions.

“Historically, more progressive leaders in the Republican party supported environmental protection. For example, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist whose policies eventually led to the creation of the modern National Park Service.[55] Republican President Richard Nixon was responsible for establishing the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.[56]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)

Read about Teddy Roosevelt trust- busting here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tr-domestic/

Images
“Lincoln Image:
Alexander Gardner (1821–1882)
Scottish photographer
Date of birth/death 17 October 1821 10 December 1882
Location of birth/death Paisley, Scotland Washington D.C.
Work period 1856-1871
Work location Washington D.C.
via Wikipedia

Description
“The Third-Term Panic”, by Thomas Nast, originally published in Harper’s Magazine 7 November 1874.
via Wikipedia