Levy Speaks on DACA and Jay Z

An inconvenient truth: Paris accord doesn’t help the environment

On a recent plane ride I watched Al Gore’s sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. I’m not a climate change denier. If you burn enough stuff it will produce particulates that accumulate in the atmosphere, which in turn, can impact how much sunlight gets in or out of the earth’s protective shield.

But the histrionics of many in the far left Green movement has led many independent thinkers to tune out. Claiming that climate change is leading to global warfare and the submersion of cities is a bridge too far..

Gore’s biggest problem is the solution he and his extreme followers peddle. Of course, it’s the Paris climate accord. Gore’s film shows Russia’s Putin, China’s Xi and India’s Modi as laudable world leaders on the global warming issue, despite the fact that the Paris accord allows the world’s biggest polluters, namely China and India, to continue polluting at will through 2030, with no mandate for change even at that point.

On the other hand, the US, which already has cuts its emissions by 25%, is held to a higher standard, having to reduce its carbon footprint even further. In essence, we would agree to damage our own economy for no good reason, since our economic competition, the largest polluters, continue to pollute with abandon. Yes, controlling carbon emissions is a noble effort, but not through this awful deal.

It doesn’t have to necessarily be America first; but it sure as hell should not be America last.

The Buffett- Bezos health care remedy

Could two private billionaires succeed where numerous presidents and Congressional sessions have failed in the quest to reduce healthcare costs? Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, along with J.P. Morgan Chase, are creating a consortium to deliver health services for their one million collective employees. If they are successful, it is possible we will soon be able to bypass insurance companies and lower cost for prescriptions and healthcare from doctors and pharmaceutical companies. We can only hope.

Windmill article omitted something: the cost to ratepayers

I read a Newsday article about New York state’s plan to build windmills off of Long Island’s shores. It had lots of statistics, including the ridiculously speculative estimate of $400 million in savings in health care cost due to lower carbon emissions.

One stat that they didn’t have: the cost to the average utility customer.

Hold onto your wallets, because it has been estimated that the price per kilowatt for these windmills is 4 to 7 times that of a typical existing power plant.

Some pundits gush over the large percentage of renewables that Germany utilizes. They fail to mention, however, that their utility bills are twice that of our already crippling rates.

Yes, let’s encourage more solar and wind turbines, but let’s do it realistically and rationally with full transparency and without bankrupting us. If we get there gradually and within reason, we will get to the day when alternatives are cheaper than fossil fuels. We are just not there yet.

Ha! Jay Z preaches about Trump.

Donald Trump is hardly a classic role model, with all his personal attacks and often crude rhetoric. But the idea of rapper Jay Z leading the charge against Trump’s antics has to take the cake. This is the same guy who admits to mugging little old ladies while denigrating women and police in his lyrics. But, then again, in this make-believe world of the entertainment industry, these kind of offensive lyrics are acceptable, because they are “artistic expression.” What a bunch of bull!