GOP squad has nothing on Dems Squad

Trump has destroyed the GOP brand with his embrace of nativism, white supremacy, xenophobia, inexorable lying, disparagement of any and all who oppose his deplorable agenda.

Tho banned from social media he can still pick up his cell and try to remain relevant in a shattered GOP. He did so within days of his disgraceful exit from DC, calling in support to help Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward keep her leadership role by a slim a 52-49 margin. Ward supported Trump’s ‘Stop The Steal’ fantasy that led to Capitol insurrection. She led the party to censure Arizona Republicans who broke with Trump like John McCain widow Cindy and former senator Jeff Flake. She’s also overseen a flight of GOP voters turning Arizona blue. Trump’s GOP true believers are mounting primary campaigns against all 10 GOP representatives who supported impeachment.

That is a GOP circular firing squad, designed to leave Trump the only viable Republican standing.

The Dems have their own Squad, consisting of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib; four bright women of color championing everything good and sensible for uplifting the millions left behind by Trump’s self destructing GOP.

Democratic Squad or GOP circular firing squad. Only one will remain standing.

290 down, 241 to go

The good news: 290 U.S. coal plants have closed in the past decade. No new ones will ever open.

The bad news: There still 241 U.S. coal plants relentlessly pumping carbon into the atmosphere, threatening human survival.

Coal, especially hard, anthracite coal, is in my heritage. My father’s family immigrated from Coal Township, Northumberland County, Shamokin, PA to Chicago in 1923, for jobs that didn’t destroy the lungs in the prime of life.

Just a few years earlier 181,000 minors labored in those anthracite hell holes. Today, it’s a couple of thousand, mostly picking out anthracite coal from the slag heaps of waste from previous mining.

Coal is our worst fuel for pouring endless CO2 into the atmosphere, turning Mother Earth into a life suffocating green house. Last year Uncle Sam spewed 4.5 billion metric tons of the stuff up there, 13% of the world’s total. Coal is also the most expensive way to generate electricity, nearly double that of solar and wind.

At 75, I’ll likely miss climate catastrophe. Can’t say that with certainty for my kids and especially the grandkids if we don’t act now.

That’s why we must all call for the end of King Coal, more aptly named Killer Coal. We can’t wait for those last 241 coal plants to just fade away. Mother Earth may fade away first.