The Green Fifth Column Makes Life Easier for Foreign Oiligarchs

What do Biden, Bernie and Putin have in common?

All three want to stop the US fracking revolution and thereby hogtie the US economy, for starters. This may not count as "Russian collusion," to borrow a phrase, but it might raise questions about who supports America's national interests and who does not. 

Both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are now on record supporting a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the US, although it's largely responsible for our world-leading reductions in CO2 emissions and America's rise from energy slacker to energy superpower. Several recent pieces -- here and here -- nicely explain what Putin's Russia hopes to gain by orchestrating the current oil price plunge, which may be good news for American gas-buyers but will wreak havoc with our domestic energy producers if the Russian gambit works.

But here's what gives Russia, Saudi Arabia and other foreign energy rivals a hidden advantage in this high-stakes game. These foreign powers aren't alone in wanting to put a lid on America's domestic energy revival. They have witting or unwitting allies working toward similar ends right here on American soil, buried deep behind "enemy lines."

That ally is Gang Green, Environmental Anxiety Inc., the Church of Climate Catastrophe . . . whatever you choose to call it. This powerful, well-funded, media-savvy lobby is also working to derail America's "energy dominance" (to use Trump's phrase), only from within, not from without. And the Democrat Party now walks in mindless lockstep with the environmental lobby, as Biden's bow to the fracknophobes shows.

I'm not saying organized environmentalists are working in consort with these foreign powers, or that they're secretly on the payroll (though that's a possibility that deserves closer scrutiny). But there's no doubt that Big Green wants what the Russians and the Saudis want -- which is an energy-starved, economically-weakened, competitively-disadvantaged United States of America. 

Having a Green Fifth Column on their side must help the Russians and Saudis sleep easier at night.

Bernie's "Secret Weapons" Were No-Shows Tuesday

Some readers may have noticed. I'm a bit of a pessimist at times.

But I'm choosing to be a "glass-half-full" kind of guy over Bernie's crushing failure to galvanize the youth vote on two consecutive Big Tuesdays, assuredly dooming his quest for the nomination.

Yes, it could be apathy. But I'm hoping, for the country's sake, that it's the sign of an anti-socialist awakening among younger Americans.

I know, I know, it's probably just the strong black coffee talking. But this morning, just for a moment, let me sun myself in a fleeting ray of unfounded optimism.

Blame Yourself, Barack

Barack Obama has only himself to blame if Obamacare and other pieces of his legacy are so vulnerable to successful legal challenge.

He was an unscrupulous corner-cutter who bragged about how his "pen and phone" presidency minimized the need to work with Congress or forge political consensus. And the half-baked scheme called Obamacare was imposed on America via party-line vote, sowing the seeds of dissent that are bearing fruit today. 

Live by the pen, die by the pen, Big Guy. Expediency, executive overreach, corner-cutting and deceptive advertising (ala "you can keep your health plan") made this great reversal all but inevitable.

Trump is only following the arrogant, imperious, go-it-alone precedent set by his predecessor.

Lenin's "Useful Idiots" Will Always Be With Us

The Soviet collapse came swiftly and surprisingly, following decades of slow internal rot, and the "useful idiots" (Lenin's term) in America who were overt or covert enablers of the evil empire -- America's legion of fellow-travelers -- just faded into the woodwork, almost overnight. Most glommed onto "climate change" as the next available tool for attacking capitalism and advancing eco-socialism, culminating in the Green New Deal, but let's save that topic for another day.

There was no Day of Reckoning for "Fifth Column" Westerners, like the crackpot from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who carried water for an evil regime and its puppets. They never had to account for or apologize for their complicity in communism's crimes. This may be why so many younger Americans seem so forgetful and forgiving of the wrongs American fellow-travelers helped perpetrate under the banner of socialism. 

Mona Charen wrote one book, "Useful Idiots," attempting to hold these tools of tyrants accountable, but there was no appetite for such retrospectives after the Berlin Wall fell. All was quickly forgotten and forgiven. All that sordid history was just brushed under the rug. 

And so we have a situation today, here in (what Gore Vidal called) the United States of Amnesia, in which those who helped prop-up criminal totalitarian regimes not only can run for President, with absolutely no sense of shame, but can gain a rabid following among new generations of "useful idiots."

The Growing Backlash Against Green Sprawl

Remember, not too long ago, when environmentalists promoted "open space" and hated on "sprawl?" These days they're frantically destroying our open spaces with endless miles of wind and solar sprawl, most of which produces intermittent energy of marginal value to the grid.

But a backlash against green sprawl is growing at home and abroad.

NIMBYism has traditionally been a reliable tool for the Big Green Obstruction Machine. Greens have had success tapping in to the got-miner mentality to rally "neighbors" against drilling projects, pipelines, new power plants, transmission lines, etc. But perhaps now we're seeing a fraying of that symbiotic relationship, as the novelty of wind farms fades and people come to understand that it's a very wasteful, unsightly, space-intensive way to generate a very modest amount of unreliable but costly energy.

Trouble's Brewing. Are Milwaukee's Riot Police Ready?

The Democrat Establishment came roaring back to life last night, pulling Joe Biden's hidebound old fanny out of the fire, at least momentarily. But unless the party's "revolutionary" wing can be reined-in -- and I doubt it can be -- there's still a good chance Trump will win the general election, as Americans hold their noses and opt for the lesser of evils.

You're going to be hearing a lot about "decency," "honor" and "character" in the months to come, as the party of old White establishment oligarchs pivots away from concrete issues to make this election about ephemera like "hope" and "change" and who can be as nice and polite and "presidential" as former Presidents were.

Establishment Dems will be scrambling to wipe the stink of overt socialism off the party as quickly as possible. But that won't be easy with Bernie's angry Red Guard breathing down their necks, waiving the red banner and suspecting, with good reason, that the game is being rigged against their guy. Bernie's brigade isn't composed of party regulars, from which party discipline can be expected when the winnowing ends and unity is needed. They won't just passively fall back into lockstep "for the good of the party" because they were never in lockstep with the party. He's leading an insurgency, which is a much tougher beast to corral.

We could see rioting in the streets, ala 1968, by the time convention time comes around. And wouldn't that be fun?

The Most Underreported Story (thus far) of 2020

America leads the world in CO2 reductions, as the chart below shows

We did it with a Republican in the White House.

We did it when the economy was growing.

We did it without Obama's Paris climate sham.

We did it without Obama's "clean power plan."

What made all this possible?

Fracking

You know, the energy innovation Democrats want to ban.