Democrats Try to Emulate China's Crony Socialism

Crony capitalism is as old as civilization itself. There are varying degrees such as mercantilism, which was popular from the 16th to the 18th century. Alexander Hamilton was one of the biggest crony capitalist in American history. He submitted a two year report to Congress on the importance of government patronage and the use of tariffs to promote American industries. Hamilton’s version of crony capitalism brought about a civil war and is still in existence to this day.

Another version of crony capitalism are these private-public partnerships Democrats love to croon about. Progressives love the patronage system where they get to dole out taxpayer monies to their buddies. There is nothing more dangerous to prosperity than a politician pulling the levers of an economy. Some of their harebrained schemes are detrimental to civilization itself. One only has to take a gander at this Green New Deal to get an idea of their insanity. This eco-socialist facade isn’t about saving the planet; it’s about control over our lives. 

What Democrats really want is China’s version of crony capitalism. Here is what the Chicoms are doing in Europe. Here is an excerpt from an article written by a Czech academic and director of China studies project:

It might have helped to look more carefully before accepting Beijing’s embrace. Some of the metaphors Chinese media have attached to the Belt and Road project are revealing. They often call it “globalisation 2.0”, or the “New World Order”. What that vocabulary struggles to mask is that the whole endeavour is driven far more by politics than by markets.

Deals are negotiated at state-to-state diplomatic summits. Open tenders are shunned. Contracts are awarded by political fiat. Ostensibly commercial companies put former politicians on their payrolls by the dozen. As it turns out, CEFC’s main investments in the Czech Republic weren’t economic, they were about buying up the loyalty of Czech officials. What China has to show for itself in my country is hardly innovation. Rather, it has brought us a new take on age-old crony capitalism.

I have a feeling this is exactly the type of economic structure Democrats want to force upon Americans. This isn’t crony capitalism; this is crony socialism.

Source:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/mercantilism

https://www.conservapedia.com/Mercantilism

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/the-green-new-deal-is-about-power-not-the-planet

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/18/chinese-europe-czech-republic-crony-capitalism

Clinton Foundation Announces Discontinuation Notice

Well, what do you know?  The Clinton Foundation is winding down its operations.  I guess those foreign donors and crony capitalists no longer see a benefit of contributing to a nonprofit organization whose main beneficiary is the Clinton family.  After all, what are they to going to get in return since Hillary lost the presidential election?  Here is an excerpt from Zero Hedge:

Filed as mandated by the Department of Labor's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, on January 12, the Clinton Foundation's Veronika Shiroka advised the DOL that as part of a "Plant Layoff" it would layoff 22 workers on April 15, with reason for the dislocation stated as "Discontinuation of the Clinton Global Initiative." The layoffs are part of the Clinton plan put in motion ahead of the presidential election, to offset a storm of criticism regarding pay-to-play allegations during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.

Source:

 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-14/clinton-foundation-shutting-down-clinton-global-initative

Democratic Crony Soros Profits Off of Bankrupted Coal Industry

Obama has made plenty of promises to the American people none of which came to fruition except for one:  Coal mines would go out of business.  Here is an excerpt from the Daily Caller.

A 2015 study found the coal industry lost 50,000 jobs from 2008 to 2012 during Obama’s first term. During Obama’s second term, the industry employment in coal mining has fallen by another 33,300 jobs, 10,900 of which occurred in the last year alone, according to federal data. Currently, coal mining employs 69,460 Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of the blame for the job losses is targeted at federal regulations aimed at preventing global warming, which caused coal power plants to go bankrupt, resulting in a sharp decline in the price of coal.

   

George Soros, a Democratic Party crony, knows a good deal when he sees it.  Since Obama’s EPA regulations bankrupted the coal industry, companies stocks are worth pennies on the dollar.  Now the former Nazi collaborator owns billions of tons of proven reserves.  This is government sponsored theft and had we an honest media it would be reported as such.

         

This global warming fraud has produced many casualties: a proven energy source, a shrinking middle-class, and respect for the media, the federal government and the sciences.  But I do hope that the biggest casualty of all will be the Democratic Party and all the grafters that infest it.

Source:

http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/05/obama-kept-his-promise-83000-coal-jobs-lost-and-400-mines-shuttered/#ixzz4JTmVEsEv

http://minersnews.com/news/2015/MN172-2.html

LGBT, Bathrooms and the Era of Progressive Good Feelings

The Sunday papers are rife with woe and self-flagellation with articles and editorials from all the amoral, dollar-sniffers that contaminate North Carolina.  What is their complaint, you ask?  Believe it or not, it’s about HB2 and this whole damn bathroom nonsense.  Apparently, the Old North State is being punished by “progressive” businesses that refuse to patronize our state because we refuse to indulge the fantasies of predators, the mentally ill and Democrats.

The big hubbub of late is the NBA’s decision to move their All-Star Game out of Charlotte in 2017 to a city that is more in tune with their Caligulic infested sport.  Yeah, nothing shouts upstanding, law-abiding citizens like an NBA player. 
  

It’s bad enough NBA franchises shakedown the local citizenry to finance their arenas, now we have to take moral instruction from a league infested with rapists, murderers and misanthropes.  No thank you.

It just doesn’t end with the NBA, local business leaders are concerned about North Carolina’s reputation.  Johnny Harris, a real estate developer, is quaking in his slippers about the impact a bathroom can make.

Harris is one of the city’s most influential real estate developers and a key architect of growth in the SouthPark area. As president of Quail Hollow, he played a critical role in bringing the PGA Championship to Charlotte, the city’s first golf major.

When Harris played at a golf tournament in California last month, North Carolina’s new LGBT law quickly became the main topic of conversation, he said.

“Everybody wanted to talk to me about what had happened in North Carolina,” said Harris. “What are they doing? They used to be the most progressive state in the South. Now, they’re going the other direction.

“It clearly has a negative impact. Anyone who thinks it doesn’t is wrong. I’ve been saying to anyone that would listen to me from the very first day that it’s a train wreck.”

What in the hell is progressive?  How can one define it?  We can start by cleaving off all common sense and decency, then inject a heavy dose of self-righteous hedonism financed by crony capitalists with a totalitarian mentality, shove it in an oven and the final product is a fascistic smiley face promoting National Socialism.

Charlotte used to be a God-fearing city.  Businesses once closed their doors on Sundays; stores, such as Ivey’s covered their window displays so as not to tempt the devout.  These days, people worship their bank accounts and false idols such as sports stars.  Welcome to the era of Progressive Good Feelings. 

Source:

 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article91375582.html#storylink=cpy

http://retroclt.blogspot.com/2014/07/looking-back-iveys-department-stores.html

North Carolina Legislators Target Uber

Leave it to politicians and crony corruptocrats to ruin a good thing.  North Carolina’s House Transportation Committee has passed a bill that would regulate, and of course tax, ride sharing companies such as Uber.  The next stop is the House Finance Committee.  Here is an excerpt from Carolina Journal:

The bill would require transportation network companies to pay $5,000 per year to the state. That fee is per company, not per driver. 

The bill would require companies to have insurance on drivers, said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, the sponsor of the bill. The minimum insurance requirement would cover liabilities of $50,000 for one person, $100,000 for two or more people, and $50,000 for property damage when a driver for one of the companies is driving but not transporting a passenger, McKissick said. When a passenger is on board, the company will be required to have $1.5 million in insurance to cover death, injury, or property damage.

Public airports in the state would be required to allow transportation network companies access to passengers at the airport, similar to how they allow access to taxis. The bill also would clarify that drivers for the companies are considered independent contractors and not employees of the company.

Cars used by such drivers would not be required to bear a “for-hire” license tag. Cars would have to maintain annual safety inspections and companies would have to conduct background checks on contracted drivers.

Eventually this country is going to end up like other third world hellholes.  Black market economy here we come.

Source:

http://www.carolinajournal.com/articles/display_story.html?id=12308

Big Solar Energy Swarms upon N.C. Republican Manure Pile

Did North Carolinians kick democrats out of office only to replace them with like-minded republicans?  I know I didn’t vote for the status quo.  Just because a politician has an “R” behind his name doesn’t give him a license to continue the corrupt practices that’s endemic in Raleigh.  Republicans were supposed to put an end to this crap.

Big Solar Energy has once again wormed its way into the taxpayers’ wallet.  So-called free market conservatives voted to continue government mandates and subsidies for inefficient and expensive renewable energy schemes.  We can expect no relief from high utility bills.

Who are these scoundrels?  The Civitas Institute reported the following:

Rep. John Szoka (R-Cumberland), perhaps the most outspoken proponent of solar energy this year, is listed as a sponsor on HB 454 The Energy Investment Act, a bill that would extend the 35 percent state tax credit for renewables. He also is a primary sponsor on another bill, HB 245, Utilities/The Energy Freedom Act, which will allow third-party sales of electricity from on-site renewable energy facilities.

And don’t forget these people:

Szoka is not the only Republican who has turned his back on conservative, free-market principles to take up the cause of more government mandates, political favoritism and higher electric bills. In April 2013, Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford) sponsored legislation to roll back the renewable energy mandates. Six Republicans joined with all the Democrats in the Public Utilities and Energy Committee and voted against the legislation, preventing the bill from making it to the House floor for a vote. The Republicans who voted against the legislation, thus maintaining these solar mandates, were current Speaker of the House Tim Moore (Cleveland), Jerry Dockham (Davidson), Ruth Samuelson (Mecklenburg), Nelson Dollar ( Wake), Charles Jeter (Mecklenburg), and Linda Johnson (Cabarrus).

Of course, where would we be without lobbyist pushing for these boondoggles.  Many will be surprised to find out that Big Solar has hired republican political consultants and lobbyists to raid the treasury.  Once again, Civitas flushes out their names:

The environmentalists pushing “clean” energy have fashioned a new weapon that can best be described as “Big Solar.” But Big Solar is not a job-growth engine as claimed by lobbyists, it exists only because of government. The major solar corporations, however, have hired the right Republican political consultants and lobbyists in North Carolina to push the narrative to their clients – GOP legislators.

For example, the “Clean Energy” power players in North Carolina include the most powerful and well-connected Republican political consultants.

Paul Shumaker, Partner, Strategic Partners Solutions and President of political consulting firm Capital Communications, Inc. Shumaker boasts as his clients Sen. Richard Burr, Supreme Court Justices Mark Martin and Bob Edmunds, and Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry. Shumaker served as campaign director for the North Carolina Republican Party from 1985-1987 and worked for former Gov. Jim Martin in both of his successful gubernatorial campaigns.

Dee Stewart, Partner, Strategic Partners Solutions, is also CEO and President of the political consulting firm the Stewart Group, Inc. Stewart was U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry’s chief of staff in 2005 and is currently his chief political advisor. He was the executive director of the Iowa Republican Party during a presidential primary year. According to the Strategic Partners Solutions website, Stewart has worked for dozens of current and former state legislators – all Republicans – including Senate Leader Phil Berger, Sen. Bill Rabon (Brunswick) and Rep. David Lewis (Harnett).

Betsy McCorkle, political consultant to North Carolina Clean Energy Business Alliance (NCCEBA). McCorkleis the director of government affairs for the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Alliance (NCSEA) and was formally the Economic Development Program Manager for the North Carolina Solar Center at NC State University.

Kristen Laster, Managing Partner, Southern Strategy Group. Laster is also a registered lobbyist with NCSEAand is the treasurer for the NCCEBA PAC.

Scott Laster, Partner, Southern Strategy Group is a registered lobbyist with NCSEA. Laster worked as the house campaign director for the North Carolina Republican Party in 2010. In 2012, he was hired as executive director for the NCGOP.

Other clean energy operatives working to recruit conservatives to Big Solar include:

Mark Fleming, President and CEO of Conservatives for Clean Energy. Formerly, Fleming served as district director for Congressman Patrick McHenry. According to his bio, he also worked as vice president of NCFREE and executive director of the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ivan Urlaub, executive director and registered agent for NCSEA. He was also the registered agent for theNCCEBA.

These power players, and the misnamed “conservative” groups, are all connected to environmental groups who get their funding from some of the most radical and well-funded organizations in the world. A 2014 United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Minority Staff report, titled “The Chain of Environmental Command – How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA,” described an organization named Sea Change this way:

“Even more unsettling, a dominant organization in this movement is Sea Change Foundation, a private California foundation, which relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed donors. In turn, Sea Change funnels tens of millions of dollars to other large but discreet foundations and prominent environmental activists who strive to control both policy and politics.”

What do you know? We have the same flies, just a different pile of manure.

Source:

http://www.nccivitas.org/2015/special-report-conservatives-pushing-big-solar-funded-by-the-left/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Civitas%20Institute&utm_content=Newsletter+2015-04-22

NC House Votes Down Special Interest "Walk Around Money"

Twenty eight NC House republicans stood by their principles and voted against a crony capitalist bill.  Leadership was split on HB 1224 with U.S. Senate nominee Thom Tillis supporting this “business as usual” legislation.  That’s change in you can believe in, folks.  How pathetic.

At least there are some politicians who refuse to be buffaloed.

Speaker Pro Tem Skip Stam, R-Wake, and Majority Leader Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, opposed the legislation. Also in opposition were the Finance Committee’s senior chairwoman, Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie, and Co-Chairman Mitchell Setzer, R-Catawba. 

First-term Rep. Michael Speciale, R-Craven, made an impassioned plea for members to oppose the bill. Speciale spoke about watching House sessions from the chamber’s balcony for 14 years, watching Republicans argue against “walk-around money” for special incentives to politically favored businesses.

“I thought, ‘Oh, if only the Republicans could be in charge — and that’s what a lot of the state thought — if only the Republicans were in charge, they would fix this,’” Speciale said. “They would quit taking money out of my pocket and give it to someone else.”

Speciale said Republicans now were being asked to support “the very thing that we argued year after year after year [against]. … The only thing I can say is, Please think about what you’re doing here.” 

Yeah, please do.

Source:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=11308

Carolina Journal Radio on Entrepreneurial Spirit and Government Regulations

This idea of public/private partnerships is nothing more than crony capitalism.  Some businesses thrive off of taxpayer money and regulatory hurdles.  In order to be successful, these companies, along with their political enablers, need to suppress competition and innovation.   

For most of human history there has been technological stagnation with a few hiccups of advancements.  The last couple of centuries have been unique.  We are witnessing innovations that no one could have comprehended decades ago.

Yet, there are those who don’t appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit.  To them it’s a dog eat dog world.  These miserable bastards believe anyone who succeeds is greedy slavers who earn their money off the backs of the poor.  They want a great leveling.  They want a return to the horse and buggy days of stagnation and general misery.  These people, who are filled with hate and envy, want to use government regulations as a means to punish.  All the while, mindlessly using the technology and products these very same entrepreneurs helped to create.

Carolina Journal Radio published an interview with Fred Smith, a founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, on the entrepreneurial spirit and the consequences of stagnation.  Here is an excerpt.  You can read the rest by clicking the link below.

Kokai: Many of us who are not entrepreneurs by nature would see the entrepreneurial spirit in action and say, “Wait a minute, this is just too hard to take.” Why is this something that we have to take and say, “Look, entrepreneurs, do what you do because this is beneficial”?

Smith: Creative destruction is the core of that question because every act of change does some damage to the existing world. The automobile put out of business the buggy makers. The Internet has threatened the whole journalism world we grew up in. … We see the wreckage in the past of the change, but we fail to understand the incredible future that is opened up by that way. 

Over the last — well, mankind over the last 10,000 or 30,000 years almost always lived in a stagnant world. Some improvements, but the improvements were critically eaten away by population growth and so on. It’s only when we found ways to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit — the Industrial Revolution — that mankind began to live better and better and better and better.

And yet those very forces of change have made us complacent to some extent. Well, life isn’t so bad. Maybe we ought to slow down a little bit. 

Well, individually, perfectly fine: Many of us slow down as we get older. We retire and so forth, and many of us take occupations that a wealthy society can afford. Not economically remunerative, but wonderful jobs we like to see. The public policy world is very much like that as we both know. 

But the challenge is to keep those forces of stasis from trying to say, “Change is too disruptive. Let’s only have it when we decide it’s safe.” Because that misses the whole point. Entrepreneurs themselves aren’t sure what the hell they’re doing. They certainly don’t know what in the world they’re going to bring about.

Bill Gates, when he was inventing his products, actually thought computers only needed 32,000 pieces of memory. Who in the name of God would ever need more than that? Well, if Gates didn’t understand that, it’s obvious no one else did, too. Everyone thought they were going to have 100 computers in the whole United States. And Apple came along and realized that aesthetics could be merged with the technology, and now it would be … almost like a painting in a room. All of those changes which now we reckon, “Well, of course now, obviously anyone could see that.” Nobody saw it coming, including the entrepreneurs themselves.

To wait until the bureaucrats understand what’s going on means we’ll have a stagnant society forever. Holding innovation down to bureaucracy speed is a recipe for disaster, for no future at all. And whether we care about that for ourselves or not, we should care about it for the people of the world, many of whom, one-third of whom, are still locked in a-dollar-a-day poverty. Only innovation can bring about the wealth and knowledge to bring those people to our standard of living.

Kokai: Does it help when making this case to point to something like a smartphone and say, “Hey, 20, 25 years ago, no one would have even known that something like this could exist,” and if we block change and entrepreneurship now, the great things like the smartphone of the future won’t come about?

Smith: You can try it, but it’s amazing how difficult it is to get people to accept that. “Well, wait a minute. Everybody knows about smartphones.” Just like everybody knew about cars and everybody — at one time — knew about railroads. We take for granted what already exists. The future seems so uncertain, so risky, so dangerous. What are the smartphones that maybe 20, 30 years from now we’ll need?

Again, Wayne Crews points out, … one of the phrases we’ve gone through a lot is, “Most of the wealth the world would need in 30 years hasn’t even been envisioned yet.” It’s not only we don’t have it yet, we don’t even know what it is going to come from. We know possibly nanotechnology could be a wonderful breakthrough area, 3D printing could be incredibly amazing, totally specializing and decentralizing production for many, many products in our society. Cell biology with a possibility of decoding the reasons why cancers [exist]. 

All of those areas are incredibly interesting paths to the future, just beginning to be explored, just beginning to be trod upon. And every one of them is threatened by [Food and Drug Administration] regulation, by [Environmental Protection Agency] regulation, by local opposition, by the forces of stasis. We always have to recognize that change is disruptive, but stagnation is deadly

 Source:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=10940

Federal Bureaucracies Dominate Rule and Policy Making

The above video is the best I’ve seen when it comes to describing the power of federal bureaucracies.  I don’t share Susan Webb Yackee’s enthusiasm for the bureaucratic state, but I appreciate her insight on the rule and policy making of unelected officials and the insiders who influence the outcome of regulations.

As far as I’m concerned, this system that has been implemented by progressives in the early part of 20^th century is a direct assault on the principles of federalism and our Constitution.  Americans need to wake up and realize that the congressmen and senators we send to Washington D.C. have abrogated their responsibilities.  We are being ruled by unelected bureaucrats and political grafters.

Obama Administration One of the Most Corrupt in American History

The United States has been riddled with corrupt administrations.  And as far as I’m concerned, the Obama administration ranks up there with the worst offenders.  I don’t believe FDR’s alphabet soup agencies – notorious for their votes for patronage – can out slime the scum that seeps from today’s White House.  I believe you’d have to go all the way back to the Grant administration to find one comparable to the degrees of cronyism and outright disregard for the law.

The Heritage Foundation published the following list of green energy companies that went bankrupt, or are on the verge of bankruptcy.  By the way, many, if not all of them, had agents that were campaign bundlers for the Obama campaign.

  The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1. Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($43 million)*
5. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
6. SunPower ($1.2 billion)
7. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
8. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
9. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
10. Amonix ($5.9 million)
11. Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
12. Abound Solar ($400 million)*
13. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
14. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
15. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
16. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
17. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
18. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
19. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
20. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
21. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
22. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
23. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
24. Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
25. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
26. Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
27. GreenVolts ($500,000)
28. Vestas ($50 million)
29. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
30. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
31. Navistar ($39 million)
32. Satcon ($3 million)*
33. Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
34. Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy

Samuel J. Tilden, an 1876 presidential nominee, called out the Grant administration.  The following is an excerpt from one of his speeches:

What the country now needs is a revival of Jeffersonian democracy, with the principles of government and rules of administration, and…the high standards of official morality which were established by the political revolution of 1800….The demoralizations of war – a spirit of gambling adventure, engendered by false systems of public finance; a grasping centralization, absorbing all functions from the local authorities; and assuming to control the industries of individuals by largesses to favored classes from the public Treasury of money wrung the body of the people by taxation – were then, as now, characteristic of the period.  The party that swayed the Government, though embracing many elevated characters, was dominated as an organization by the ideas of its master spirit, Alexander Hamilton.  Himself personally pure, he nevertheless believed that our people must be governed, if not by force, at least by appeals to the selfish interests of classes, in all forms of corrupt influence….As a means to the reaction of 1800, Jefferson organized the Democratic Party.  He set up anew the broken foundations of governmental power.  He stayed the advancing centralization.  He restored the rights of the States and of the localities.  He repressed the meddling of Government in the concerns of private business….He refused to appoint relatives to office.  He declined all presents.  He refrained while in the public service from all enterprises to increase his private fortune….The reformatory work of Mr. Jefferson in 1800 must now be repeated.

 Mr. Tilden’s plea resounds to this day. 

Source:  http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/18/president-obamas-taxpayer-backed-green-energy-failures/

When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Crony

Remind me to punch my guidance councilor in the face, the next time I see him.

H/T: Redstate

Chemtex Gets Its Government Funded Boondoggle

Chemtex gets its long awaited backing by the USDA. The green energy scam keeps a rolling along, and all in the name of energy independence. In the meantime, the Obama administration is trying to shutdown known, provable and efficient sources of energy such as coal and oil. But hey, what’s a boondoggle amongst our betters?

RALEIGH – A company that wants to turn grasses grown on North Carolina hog farms into motor fuel on Wednesday got the federal backing it wanted before building an ethanol plant supporters think could mark a milestone in the state’s rural economy.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said Wednesday it has approved a loan guarantee worth $99 million for Wilmington-based Chemtex International Inc., backing a larger bank loan for the $170 million project. The company plans to build an ethanol plant near Clinton in Sampson County that will convert high-energy grass varieties into 20 million gallons of ethanol a year. Production is expected to start in 2014.

There is such a high demand for this energy source, the USDA had to bribe local farmers in order to produce the grasses needed for this pie-in-the-sky project.

The company is signing up hog farms to grow the grasses on up to 30,000 acres of hog spray fields, turning that land into a new cash crop for farmers. Water used to suspend and carry hog waste is sprayed on nearly 100,000 acres of farm fields in Sampson, Duplin, and Wayne counties.

Farmers now grow Coastal Bermuda grass to soak up the water-borne nutrients, and landowners must be persuaded to switch to growing energy grasses including miscanthus and switchgrass. The USDA previously approved $4 million that will pay farmers in 11 southeastern North Carolina counties most of their costs of planting the energy grasses the ethanol plant needs.

Will Chemtex become another Solyndra? Or are they too big to fail. Time will tell how many millions or billions of dollars the taxpayers will get screwed out of.

Source: http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/ncwire/ethanol-maker-gets-usda-backing-fuel-plant-1184491

Got Cronies?

Abound Solar: Another Obama Sponsored Bankruptcy

And here is another Obama sponsored bankruptcy. Those greenies sure do know how to scam the taxpayers:

Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy because its panels were too expensive to compete.

Abound borrowed about $70 million against the guarantee, the Loveland, Colorado-based company said today in a statement. It plans to file for bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware, next week.

The failure will follow that of Solyndra LLC, which shut down in August after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the same U.S. Energy Department program. Abound stopped production in February to focus on reducing costs after a global oversupply and increasing competition from China drove down the price of solar panels by half last year.

Of course the Chinese are to blame for this failure. Wait, didn’t they say there was a global oversupply? Is that because there is no demand for solar panels? Those Chinese are deviant.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-28/abound-solar-to-close-as-early-as-today-greentech-media-says

Solyndra Sums Up the Obama Administration

Gas lines helped to define Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency. Green energy is doing the same to Obama. A picture says a thousand words, and the above sums it up.

And let’s make no mistake about who is responsible for Solyndra:




Of course Obama exudes true leadership skills in a crisis:



Can we afford another four years?

Source: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/solyndra-building-sale_640469.html

Obama's Algae Cronies Skim Taxpayers Wallets

When Barack Obama brought up his algae solution to our energy needs, many of us laughed. But deep down inside, we all knew something was up. We all had a gut-feeling that another one of his scummy cronies was about to skim the taxpayers of their hard earned money. I’ll be damned if that didn’t happen.

President Obama’s most recent green energy fixation—algae—may suffer from the accusations of cronyism that have plagued his broader effort to promote non-fossil fuel energy sources through massive federal subsidies.

Solazyme, a San Francisco-based firm that specializes in the plant matter, has received more than $25 million in federal grants and contracts as part of Obama administration’s controversial stimulus package, and is poised to receive millions more as part of the president’s recent efforts to promote green biofuels such as algae.

The firm employs a former member of the Obama-Biden transition team who, according to one online bio, “played a key role in developing the energy provisions in the economic stimulus bill.”

I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed an administration as shameless as this. It must be a Chicago thing.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/algae-alimony/

Government Motors Smells the Roses of Profitability

Everything is coming up roses at General (Government) Motors. Last year, GM made $9 billion. As a consequence, the UAW members were awarded $7,000 in profit sharing bonuses. Their government appointed executives received millions in stock options; and their wealthy, green snob customers got a $7,500 tax credit for purchasing a Chevy Volt.

And to make matters worse, Government Motors didn’t pay a dime in taxes; nor did they make an attempt to pay back the $50 billion they borrowed from the taxpayers in order to bail their miserable asses out. As a matter of fact, they received an additional $110 million in additional “benefits.” Welcome to crony capitalist at its most obnoxious.

But not everyone associated with the Detroit behemoth is faring well. White collar workers are feeling the blunt end of worker-class envy cudgel. Their pensions are frozen and numbers are reported to be downsized.

Welcome to Obama’s world, America.

Source: http://nlpc.org/stories/2012/02/16/gm-pays-less-tax-buffet%E2%80%99s-secretary-uaw-profits