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How To Know Carbon Capture Is a Scam

So, before I was an education activist – and now a liberty activist – I was a biologist.

I actually have a BS (yes, I’m full of that! LOLOL) in Biology and a Master’s in Biology, both. In fact, I had intended to go on to get a Doctorate and teach, but once I found out that – in my experience – college professors were a bunch of big jerks I decided that wasn’t for me. Instead, I taught college as a TA and then after graduation, high school, middle school, my own kids and homeschool COOP kids.

Thus, I’ve been able to be fairly knowledgeable about issues we’ve covered that include science topics, like the Climate Change scam and all its universe of associated garbage.

Recently, I found out that Oklahoma had the second largest carbon capture facility in the world and the largest in the United States. I also found, as I asked around, that no one in Osage County (where the facility is located) seemed to know anything about it. This forced me – and our new writer Shane Smith – to do some research on carbon capture policy and what we found is that there really isn’t any policy other than no policy for green businesses, which doesn’t protect Oklahoma citizens at all. If you haven’t read our blog on the topic, you really should.

Last Friday, NeeAnn Clinton of Enid, in Garfield County, was on our podcast to tell us about a lawsuit residents have had to file against their Metropolitan Planning Commission for not upholding zoning laws in the case of a proposed 5000 acre solar facility just north of the city.

Though we kept trying to talk about solar, I kept inserting information about carbon capture because there were so many overlapping issues – mainly the lack of regulation.

At one point in the conversation I brought up a bit of biology…have a listen.

The slides embedded in the video came from the NOAA fisheries website. Go figure. I had learned about phytoplankton and blue-green algae when I was a student in college. So what? Now we don’t know this anymore? We’ve dumbed down our students so far in biology that not only do they NOT know the Carbon Cycle, but they don’t know what green plants/organisms do at all?

The schematic below shows specifically how oceanic environments SEQUESTER CO2 all by themselves without any help from carbon capture facilities.

In addition, just think of this one thing. What does the second largest carbon capture facility in the world run on? Electricity. Where does electricity come from? In Oklahoma, coal-fired electrical plants. So. Make sense of that. You can’t. It’s stupid.

This writer says, in an article actually titled, “The Great Carbon Capture Scam“,

Running a carbon capture system is incredibly energy-intensive, essentially requiring building a new power plant to run the system. This obviously creates another new source of air and carbon pollution since the U.S. no longer builds nuclear plants and even when it did never built them that small. This extra energy use undermines the whole goal of capturing carbon in the first place. Indeed, while the U.S. emits roughly 5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year, removing 1 billion tons of that through direct air capture would require nearly the entire electricity output of the nation, according to research published in Biophysical Economics and Sustainability.

In fact, the carbon capture scam is SO BAD that Rex Weyler of GREENPEACE FOR PETE SAKES, though he believes that Climate Change is a thing, and big oil is the devil, he does believe this:

The swindle appears simple: Pretend to help solve a problem, while making the problem worse, socialize the costs and liabilities, and privatize the profits. Clever.

Weyler’s article is really very good – lots of great information on all the failed CO2 capture attempts through today – but people won’t like it because it points to big oil as the generator of the scheme for regeneration of spent oil fields and our Governor won’t like it because it basically echoes what Michael says in the clip above – it’s all about the Benjamins. Period.

Oklahoma shouldn’t perpetuate scams on the back of their citizens and taxpayers, so you’d better let your legislator know you won’t put up with giving these private companies carte blanche to wreck your back yard and kill you with a CO2 pipe break and you’d better do it NOW!

We Are Quickly Moving Away from A Rights-Based Society to a Value-Based Society

Jenni White, 4.12.24

After our interview with Julianne Romanello Wednesday morning, I felt it would be helpful to add a few links to allow people to further explore the premise of Rights-Based vs Value-Based governance.

At the outset of the podcast, we talked about property taxes and how, once the government taxes our property, we don’t own it anymore. This was arguably one of Jefferson’s biggest issue, which he delineated in the Declaration of Independence by the word ‘happiness’ in the phrase, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Why equate property with happiness?

One of the reasons the pilgrims left England for lands undiscovered, was the very difficult ability to hold property in a monarchical system. If property rights had not been previously prescribed and legally noted, the King was often considered the owner of all empty lands because he was King by right of God and God provided him the land. This land could be (and was) given to various title-holding individuals depending upon the monarch at the time, usually consisting of Lords, Bishops, Barons, etc., while all non-title-holders were forced to rent land from the King (or the closest title-holder). In fact, even if you were found hunting on the King’s land, you could be fined or otherwise punished. It mattered not if your children were starving and you were unable to find food, all the game on the King’s property was the King’s, end of discussion.

If the King created another Baron in the place of the previous, a renter could be thrown off the property so it could be bequeathed to a new ‘owner’. Obviously, this kind of instability for the vast majority of the English population did NOT create happiness. Thus, one of the rights among men that the Founders desired to enshrine in the Constitution, was the right to own property for oneself; not merely rent it from the Crown, OR ANOTHER GOVERNMENTAL FORM. This stability then, could create happiness of the kind that provided safety and security as the phrase, “A man’s home is his castle” was meant to convey.

Today, however, Oklahomans – like so many other citizens of so many other states – no longer own their own property, but rent it from the King (state), placing us right back where we were when we started.

Why would I say such a thing? Because, as McClain County Assessor Kendal Sacchieri told us – property taxes MUST be paid, or we’ll be thrown off ‘our’ property so that ‘our’ property can be sold to the highest bidder and the taxes paid to the King (state).

What creates property taxes? Look at the illustration below prepared by Larry Stein, Oklahoma County Assessor. It can be found here, with more explanation for the expenditure of County property tax dollars.

You’re property is not your own because nearly 60% of it goes to government schools – government schools who also receive appropriations from the legislature, monies from parimutuel betting, the lottery AND MORE! As I’ve asked perpetually since 2010 – HOW MUCH MONEY IS ENOUGH FOR SCHOOLS TO HAVE – especially when their results are dismal and rare few pupils educated in public schools can read or do math! Here are a few of the other ways public schools get money from an 1889 Institute paper on School Finance.

Please, someone explain to me why our PROPERTY is being attached for government education that already is funded via the appropriation mechanism?

Career Tech and College Tech Centers are also appropriated funds by the legislature. Here are their budget requests for 2020.

PLEASE, someone explain to me why our PROPERTY is being attached for MORE government education that is funded via the appropriation mechanism?

County government gets the next piece. To me, this is actually legitimate government expense. The County provides road repair and many other SERVICES from which taxpayers benefit. This, could be paid directly to the County as a tax – much like the taxes paid to the state – instead of attaching our property.

Cities and towns should be funded via their own taxes – like those on delivered merchandize (Amazon, etc.) and sales taxes collected within their boundaries (which they already get!) – your property SHOULD NOT BE TAXED TO RUN CITIES AND TOWNS.

The City/County Library should be funded via voluntary donations. Period. Yes, it is important to have repositories of knowledge, but large corporations are welcome to donate these facilities – as are citizens. Our PROPERTY SHOULD NOT BE TAXED to provide disgusting books to minors – which they do.

The City/County Health Department is another item that should be funded privately. There are many indigent clinics run by non-profits. Healthcare is NOT a function of government, it is a function of private economy whether you like that idea or not. The main function of government in America is THE PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS. Healthcare is not an individual right and has never been throughout history until the last several generations. Additionally, we all know that government-sponsored healthcare systems became armies of tyranny during COVID. I don’t want my tax dollars used to support tyranny in any form and I certainly don’t want my property seized to pay taxes to a group of people who want to force me to bow to healthcare mandates we’ve since learned DID NOTHING or killed us.

TIFs are a type of property tax that indebt property owners for economic development. You can read more on that here. There is no way property owners should allow ANY form of ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT to attach their property. Back in the ‘old days’ developers shouldered the risk of their developments – but they also owned all the rewards. Today, the PUBLIC is made to shoulder the risk of PRIVATE development, yet our property is taxed without us getting any REWARD at all. In many cases, the TIFF is for an office building or industrial park. Not only do the taxed property owners not reap any reward from this development, but they don’t even get to USE the property they are financing. Most TIFFs are sold to the public as – here, we’ll develop this area to bring in businesses from which you can possibly get a job. WHAT? Not only is there NO REWARD for the taxation of our property, but we might not even be able to become employed by the businesses being brought in through the development? Who in their right mind would give someone on the street the use of their car for the PROMISE that they’ll put gas in it when (if) they bring it back, yet people in cities and towns across Oklahoma actually fall for this scheme and accept the taxation of their property through a TIFF consistently. WAKE UP! STOP IT!

And so, to wrap up my most extensive piece ever on property taxes, please read this twice or three times. Once you understand the argument – because I believe you will – share it with friends AND your legislators. Property taxes are INHERENTLY wrong and must be stopped if Americans (Oklahomans) are to have true freedom.

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