Tim Walz and Working America

In this new century, what was once relatively rare in America has become commonplace: multibillion-dollar projects using what should be the best science and engineering talent—fail right out of the starting gate. But they don’t just end there. They limp on for years, soaking up more billions. Eventually, what was launched with fanfare, is quietly buried at night. This was the story of the US Army (and Boeing’s) Future Combat Systems program to replace the Bradley fighting vehicle and Abrams tank, and of FCS’s successor, the equally failed Ground Combat Vehicle. This was the story of the US Navy’s “littoral combat ship” and Zumwalt-Class Destroyer.

Now, two American astronauts have been stranded on the International Space Station since early June, because Boeing’s failed Starliner, which took them there, is so far unable to bring them back. NASA just announced that the astronauts may be stranded in orbit until next February, when they can be rescued by Boeing’s competitor, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and its Crew Dragon.

Boeing’s Starliner and Musk’s Crew Dragon were launched simultaneously in 2010; Boeing’s contract was for $4.3 billion, and SpaceX’s for $2.5 billion. Since then, Boeing has never succeeded in delivering a crew until it brought this one up in June; SpaceX has made 15 successful (and no unsuccessful) trips.

Musk’s engineering worked; Boeing’s failed. So-called leaders went along with fashionable group-think, without ever checking the facts for themselves—all the way to disaster.

Now what Americans are beginning to figure out, is that the multi-billion-dollar wind- and solar-power program to which Tim Walz has committed Minnesota (and Kamala Harris committed the US), is just the same sort of fiasco as Future Combat Systems and Boeing’s Starliner.

Governor Walz put through a bill last year that mandates that by 2040, no electricity will be produced any longer from fossil fuels in Minnesota. Coal and gas-fired generators will be shut down. But he never spoke about any of the costs—not to the budget, but the state’s economy. Studies have shown that the bill will cause devastating blackouts—as in California and Texas, also heavily dependent on “renewables.” Electric bills will increase almost $4,000 every year for ten years. Minnesota will lose 79,000 jobs, especially in manufacturing, mining and agriculture.

Renewables proponents present a very one-sided picture. They claim these energy sources are cheaper than hydrocarbons and nuclear, but forget that they provide power only when the wind is blowing hard and the sun shining brightly. There are massive costs to provide power at other times, and to integrate intermittent renewables into the grid. When these costs are taken into account, wind and solar are not cheaper than hydrocarbons and nuclear, but 10-20 times more expensive.

And a grid which is high in intermittent energy sources like wind and solar can become highly unstable during high demand—hence the blackouts.

Climate extremism was part of a package Tim Walz signed onto when he left Congress to run for Governor in 2018. He dropped many of the views he once shared with the rural Minnesotans he had represented for five Congressional terms. In exchange, he bought into policies popular among foundations, NGOs, and progressive Democrats in the state’s major population centers. Especially so after Democrats took control of the legislature in 2022.

Steve Kornacki Explodes Claim of Tim Walz’s Rural Appeal on MSNBC: ‘You Don’t See It In What He Actually Did on the Ballot’ - NewsBreak

Steve Kornacki delivered some bad news for Democrats hoping thatTim Walz might help them win back rural parts of the Rust Belt on Tuesday. The post Steve Kornacki Explodes Claim of Tim Walz’s Rural Appeal on MSNBC: ‘You Don’t See It In What He Actually Did on the Ballot’ first appeared on Mediaite.

NewsBreak

Which is the real Tim Walz? The gun-rights Congressman who won an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, or the gun-control Governor who got an “F?” The Congressman whom rural Minnesotans re-elected five times, or the Governor they rejected for re-election in 2022, when he won the race thanks only to the big cities.

Which is the real Tim Walz? You decide.

Some of the reasons that rural Minnesotans, his former Congressional constituents, reject him as Governor:

• Walz withheld the National Guard for three days in 2020 as Twin Cities burned in the George Floyd riots, his wife says she loves the smell of burning tires;
• In response to COVID-19, he shut down schools, churches and business, and instituted draconian mask mandates and shelter-in-place orders, while urging everyone to snitch to the state on the resistant;
• He gave free college, free healthcare, and drivers licenses to illegal immigrants and said he would buy illegals ladders to scale Trump’s wall;
• He made Minnesota a sanctuary state for sex-change hormones and surgeries for minors and ordered tampons in boy’s bathrooms;
• He instituted abortion on demand through the ninth month of pregnancy;
• Climate extremist Walz thinks the Navy should power its ships with algae to stop global warming.

What is the underlying character of this chameleon of a man? Walz has repeatedly described himself as a combat veteran, but he is not. Members of his National Guard battalion, where he was senior Non-Commissioned Officer, say that he retired suddenly after 24 years in the Guard, when he learned his unit would be sent to Iraq in 2005. They are outraged that he abandoned his men.

Tim Walz left National Guard battalion ‘hanging,’ ‘slithered out the door’ before Iraq deployment: vets

Veterans have accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “embellishing” his military career and abandoning his National Guard battalion, highlighting that the now-vice presidential pick for the Democrats n…

New York PostCaitlin Doornbos

Leadership is courage; leadership is conviction. What sort of fiasco awaits a nation where Tim Walz has authority?