The Facts

In response to talking points that have slithered out from Fox Entertainment, Newsmax, Solvang, and onto the pages of a local Santa Barbara daily:

As the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You are entitled to your own opinion. But, you are not entitled to your own facts.”

The facts (kryptonite to the radical right) are as follows:

1) We will never be energy independent until we unshackle ourselves from the chains of the greedy fossil fuel industry.

2) Trump’s immigration policy was a porous Border Wall and what was known as “tender age” (adolescents, toddlers, and infants) detention centers.

3) The withdrawal from Afghanistan was, indeed, a disaster. However, none of President Biden’s immediate predecessors had the will to take on that challenge or the courage to accept its consequences.

4) China has grown economically and militarily since the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949. To blame any one president is ludicrous.

5) If you’re concerned about the price of gas, support investment in alternative energy sources such as solar, geothermal, and wind.

6) Crime is on the rise and is a legitimate concern. This includes sedition by those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fake slates of electors charged with overturning a democratic (small d) election, and Trumpista politicians who were (and are) the engineers driving this train straight into the 9th Circle of Hell described in Dante’s Inferno.

In spite of herculean efforts to present “alternative facts”, these undeniable truths cannot be cancelled. Inevitably, they will see the light of day.