On rewatching "Band of Brothers" and viewing "The Pacific" for the first time

Here’s how I used to think about World War 2. It was our father’s and mother’s war. My father joined up early in ’42 and served as a radioman in the ETO with the U.S. Army Signal Corps until 1946. My mother trained on the U.S. Navy nurse program and would have served when she graduated in ’46 but the war was over. They were my heroes, members of what Tom Brokaw labeled The Greatest Generation. Time marched on. We forgot about the war. The fascists had been licked and would never return. The Boomers got old and complacent. 

Next thing we know, the fascists are back, at home and abroad. The fiction of conspiracy novels became the facts of 2023.

So, again, I think a lot about World War 2. The Nasties of 1939 Germany, Italy, and Japan are back except they are right here in our neighborhoods. Trump is Il Duce. Storm troopers rampage at the U.S. Capitol. Chinese militarists plot mischief in the Pacific. Hungary elects a right-wing strongman beloved by the MAGA crowd..

I was glad to see that Netflix returned “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” I’ve watched the first one several times and was impressed. So I watched it again and was struck by the sacrifices made by Easy Company as they fought the Nazis across Europe. The Nazis were our enemy and they and their fascist ideology needed to die.

As for “The Pacific,” that series bowled me over. Saddened me too, for all of those young men who died on islands they never knew existed growing up in small-town America. The savagery of the marine battles for Guadalcanal and Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, were recreated in gory detail. Men who were there wrote memoirs about their experiences that they couldn’t get out of their souls. The Japanese militarists had to be defeated, their twisted philosophy had to die, for the world to have a semblance of peace.

We’ve been told over the years that there was nothing like the scope of World War 2 and the world would never see its like again. The U.S. wasted its treasure and young lives in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. Such a waste. It left a vacuum that China aches to fill over the next centuries. They think in terms of centuries while we measure our lives in microseconds. We must think in longer intervals to survive what’s coming.

Resistance is futile. Read The Three-Body Problem trilogy before it enters the Netflix universe

Have you ever heard the term “Dark Forest” in reference to one of the universe’s big mysteries?

I had not until I read Richard Powers’ wonderful novel about an astrophysicist’s dilemma that crosses space and time in “Bewilderment.” Then I came across a novel on Kindle called “The Dark Forest” by Chinese sci-fi writer Cixin Liu, Liu Cixin in Chinese as the last name is listed first.

This concept posits that the universe is the Dark Forest. Intelligent lifeforms are making their way through the forest and are afraid. There are other lifeforms out there but what are they like? Are they powerful but helpful giant octopus-like creatures in “Arrival.” Or are they savage multi-limbed killers as in “Independence Day,” the creeps who just want humans to “die.”

As lifeforms make their way through the Dark Forest, they don’t know what they’re going to find. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to shoot first and ask questions later rather than being ambushed themselves? Forget “Star Trek” and its non-interference directive. Those strange-looking bastards on the other side of the trees are dangerous and can’t be trusted. Our very existence is threatened. Fire!

This helps explain why Earth, after sending our radio and TV signals and Voyager space probes for the last 100 years, has been met with silence. Maybe others have picked up the signals, have investigated us further, and decided that we are killers, which we are, invaders that have wiped out entire civilizations all over the globe.

In Liu’s novel, second part of “The Three-Body Problem” trilogy, scientists have made first contact with extraterrestrials. Residents of Trisolaris answer the call. Trisolarans are telepaths so everyone on their planet knows what others are thinking. When told that Earthlings speak from their mouths and tend to hide their inner feelings, the aliens assume that we are keepers of dark secrets and are dangerous. They plan to eliminate us as soon as they can get their space fleet to our solar system in some 400 years. Humans begin to plan for the encounter. Wallfacers are selected to come up with ways to staunch the upcoming alien invasion. Some Earthlings secretly ally with the aliens as they believe the aliens just might be more sensible than their earthly neighbors. They also suspect that resistance is futile, as the Borg like to say.

I read it with a dose of dark humor as it is true that humankind is dangerous and can’t be trusted. If I was a Trisolaran, I would get to earth ASAP, before we perfect interstellar travel and keen new weapons and pursue them in the Dark Forest.

Interesting to see that Netflix is turning Liu’s trilogy into a series due out in 2023. The Netflix web site says the series will debut next year. Director is “True Blood’s” Alexander Woo with “Games of Thrones” writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. In 2020, Netflix farmed out the English-language rights for the books which was only available in the original Chinese. So, if you choose, you can read the trilogy or get it on Kindle and start with the second book as I did. It can be a hard slog at times and wonderful in its moments.

I have read only two other trilogies in the sci-fi/fantasy category: “Lord of the Rings” and “Foundation.” Also, John Dos Passos’s “U.S.A.” trilogy. Dos Passos incorporates different points of view and newspaper snippets as he recounts his view of the U.S. in the post-World War I era. A neat blend of fiction and fact, a series ahead of its time. Eduardo Galeano and “Memory of Fire,” 500 years of Latin American history. Again, a wonderful mix of fact and fiction. Magical-realism is involved.

Do you have other trilogies to suggest?

If I may make a modest suggestion: start with book one when tackling a series. I’m pretty sure I missed out by starting in the middle. 

Barrasso and his GOP pals have a COVID-19 message: Forget Trump, Blame China

Note of paranoia from Wyoming Senator/Sawbones John Barrasso.

Somehow I got on his email list. I haven’t yet unsubscribed because it is so telling to see what he’s sending out to his broader constituency.

On May 1, I received an e-mail with some helpful hints about the pandemic. It opens on a hopeful note: “We are all in this together.” I had to laugh. Together? The senator, thanks to deluded Wyoming R voters and those who stayed home, has a guaranteed job through 2024. A guaranteed paycheck and staff goes with it as does health care paid for by you and me. He can get a COVID-19 test whenever he wants. He’s become a millionaire since going to Congress. If Trump is reelected and the GOP keeps its majority in the Senate, Republican Barrasso will be up for a major leadership role. Meanwhile, he joins #MoscowMitch in opposition to the new stimulus bill approved by the House and now a-mouldering on Mitch’s desk.

In an interview on, of course, Fox, Barrasso said that :

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "must be living on Fantasy Island" if she thinks her $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill will become law…. It's bloated and partisan, and it's a payout to her liberal constituencies. 

Barrasso may look thin on TV but he's usually all about being bloated and partisan. Remember, he voted for Trump’s tax cut for the rich and he hovers around #MoscowMitch in every blasted press photo and every televised news conference.

In the meantime, Barrasso and his right-wing pals stir up a war with China. It’s a dandy way to take our minds off of Trump’s ineptitude in handling this health crisis. Here’s his May 8 message, courtesy of Friend of John Barrasso:

The coronavirus has changed our daily lives and brought our economy to a standstill. 

We’ve had to adjust to social distancing and making tough calls between health and safety, and keeping essential parts of our country going. 

China’s response, or lack thereof, led to our current pandemic, shutting entire countries and the global economy down. Rather than warn the world, it appears the Chinese government chose to cover up their deadly mistake.  

Mike, China has a history of being a bad actor, from human rights violations to privacy concerns, and their role in the coronavirus pandemic is no different. We must hold China accountable - will you add your name to our petition? 

SIGN THE PETITION 

We must stand together to hold China responsible. Not only did China choose to withhold information about the virus, they have been actively pushing propaganda and attempting to deflect blame to the United States. 

We must take a stand. Add your name to join us in holding China accountable. 

HOLD CHINA ACCOUNTABLE 

Thank you for your commitment to our fight, 

Team Barrasso

I disabled the links as I don’t want to lead you astray. If you must blame China, don’t buy anything at a big box store or in one of America’s disappearing malls. That’ll show ‘em.

Young Wyoming activists come up with unique way to save the elephants

The Tooth Fairy is real. 

Two young people in Jackson Hole have come up with a compelling project to help save elephants. You may have heard that elephant poaching increases even in the face of stepped-up preservation efforts. The reason: ivory from elephant tusks. The market: China, which seems to have an insatiable appetite for the stuff. Here's the project:

THE TOOTH FAIRY PROJECT presented by Elephant Daze and WILD SCIENCE

October 4-5 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Center Theater Lobby, Jackson

- Elephant photography exhibit by Joachim Schmeisser and Kate Brooks
- Elephant Art Contest (awards announced Oct. 5 at 4 p.m.)
- Elephant Lifespan Exhibit
- Activism: Kids write letters asking the Tooth Fairy to send his baby teeth stockpile to China where 70 percent of elephant ivory tusks end up and where 70 percent of Chinese citizens believe elephant tusks FALL OFF and REGROW. This provocative and endearing community activation message will engage the public and the press to advance our mission: to garner media attention to save the elephant by ending legal (and illegal) ivory trade and carving in China.

The Tooth Fairy Project is supported by two young Jackson Hole activists: LILY MARVIN (11) and ALEX FRENCH (9), who are working hard to save the elephant, which they know also saves you and me.

Wyoming coal dust a pollutant -- or not? Ask a bride...

On Saturday, I posted about Seattle and the fact that urbanites in that green bastion might have to drink their lattes with a spritz of coal dust if Wyoming and Montana and Peabody Energy get their way and send swarms of coal trains to West Coast ports. Most of the coal will be bound for energy-hungry China.

One reader told me that Powder River Basin coal companies are now spraying the tops of their coal cars with "surfactants" that adhere to the coal and prevent the dust from flying every which way. Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials said that "spraying cuts dust by 85 percent," according to a story in the Portland Oregonian.

I also found out from the same article that coal companies now load coal in a "bread loaf shape that reduces dust." Not sure how that works, but I'm willing to accept the fact that changing the aerodynamics of a train load can have a positive effect.

A war is being waged here between energy-producing red-staters and bluish greenies on the coast. Some of my fellow union members in the Pacific Northwest are in favor of the coal train shipments as it could mean up to 15,000 jobs at the ports and the railyards. Some of my fellow red-state Dems in the northern Rockies are against the coal shipments and the coal burning that will lead to more global warming. The mayor of Missoula, for instance. But you know how Missoula is. 

Yesterday the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not do an in-depth study of the possible pollution caused by a flurry of coal shipments to West Coast ports. The coal people saw this as a victory while the anti-coal people did not. As we all know, only part of this struggle is about scientific fact; the rest is about emotion and political clout. Repubs will shout about jobs and the free market. Dems will shout about pollution and global warming. 

But what will the brides be shouting about?

The in-laws, probably, especially the groom's drunken uncle. But they won't be complaining about coal dust ruining their dresses if they're getting married outdoors in Gillette "Coal City" Wyoming.  

I caught a short status update on Facebook today that addressed the issue. It was by Joe Lunne, PIO of the City of Gillette.  I work as a PIO when I'm not blogging, so I know that Joe is just trying to do his job in the face of overwhelming attacks from environmentalists and The Liberal Media Monolith. Coal pays the piper in Gillette and throughout the state. I thought his approach to this issue was touchingly personal, which is really what most political fights come down to. Take a look at the accompanying photo and then read the status update:

"This picture shows a stretch of the walking path around Cam-Plex park. The park is only 75 feet from Highway 14/16 and about 175 feet from the railroad tracks that carry millions of tons of coal out of the Powder River Basin every day. 

"Around a hundred weddings take place in the park each year, and that would not happen if coal were as dirty as its critics say it is. The park is clean...and so are the wedding dresses. The brides wouldn't have it any other way!"

I don't think that Joe will be called to testify at any Congressional hearings. Or any of the hundred brides that get married this year down by the railroad tracks. But who knows? Weirder things have happened. 

"In the Shadow of the Buddha" author to be keynote speaker at WY Dems' Nellie Tayloe Ross banquet

Matteo Pistono will be the keynote speaker at the Wyoming Democratic Party's Nellie Tayloe Ross banquet on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne. A cocktail reception starts at 6 p.m., followed by dinner, awards ceremony and keynote at 7. Get more info at http://wyodems.org

For more than a decade, Matteo Pistono has lived in Nepal and Tibet, and worked in the fields of human rights and religious freedom. Matteo Pistono has been heralded as "The James Bond of Tibetan Buddhism" and has worked with some of the world's greatest teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche, and the late Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok.

Seeing new West Coast coal terminals as a red-state, blue-state issue

On Wyofile, San Juan Islands' resident Charlie West offers a tongue-in-cheek modest proposal: You send us your coal, we'll send you our trash.

West notes that the wide open spaces of Wyoming and Montana have plenty of big holes for the trash of the 48 million residents of Washington, Oregon and California. It's only a fair trade, right? You send us your dirty coal and we send you our dirty trash.

A batch of inland Republicans, including our very own Cynthia Lummis, is trying to browbeat Washington's coastal residents in permitting a new coal shipping facility. West reports a lively conversation at the local tavern which goes something like this:

“We’re selling taxpayer-owned coal for next to nothing, so it can be sent somewhere else, to run someone else’s factories, and employ someone else’s people while we don’t have enough jobs in this country?”

“It makes no sense, pollute the air with trains and ships to get the coal there, then they burn it and their pollution drifts back here!”

We all pay for dirty coal. Global warming is real, no matter what the Know Nothings say in my Deep Red State of Wyoming. And while Wyoming rakes in taxes from its oil and gas and coal, including almost a billion federal dollars from energy resources extracted on public land (see previous post), coastal residents pay the price with rising sea levels and whopper storms.

Forward-thinking blue states such as WA, OR and CA invest heavily in alternative energy while WY continues burning and shipping coal. The coal is shipped to China and India where it is burned, creating more CO2 in the atmosphere -- this speeds global warming. The ice sheets melt, forcing a rise in ocean levels which swamps blue-state cities, drowning Liberal, latte-drinking, mountain-bike-riding voters by the millions. Wyoming builds a big wall at its borders to keep out the riff raff. We keep mining and burning and shipping coal, secure in the knowledge that sea levels have to get pretty darn high before bitchin' waves begin to break on the beaches of Cheyenne. Besides, the wall will keep the water out. We'll call them dikes. And we can open our own ports to ship our own coal to China and India, those parts that aren't at the bottom of Davy Jones Locker.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. I better wear shades, what with the dissolving ozone layer and blinding sun and all.

Whistle Stop Film Festival stops at Mt. Sinai Synagogue in Cheyenne

From Wyoming Community Media's Whistle Stop Film Festival:

Mt. Sinai Synagogue in Cheyenne will present a double feature of two short documentary films on Saturday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.  The films are:

Shanghai Ghetto (95 minutes): A gentle, loving accounting of 20,000 mostly German Jews who were able to escape the Nazi's before World War II started and go to Shanghai, China, where the Japanese were in control of that city.

Visas and Virtues (30 minutes): 1997 Oscar-winning short by Chris Tashima. Haunted by the sight of hundreds of Jewish refugees outside the consulate gates, a Japanese diplomat and his wife, at the beginning of World War II, must decide how much they are willing to risk. Inspired by a true story, this Academy Award® winning portrait gracefully captured in period black and white by noted cinematographer Hiro Narita poignantly pays tribute to the rescuer of 6,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

The movies will be shown in the Social Hall at the Synagogue. For more information, go to
http://mtsinaicheyenne.org/special_events.asp, or contact Jaimee Sodosky, 303-503-1844

U.S.A. on Fourth of July: Made in China

SF-Oakland Bay Bridge --
Made in China

This is disgusting (from buzzflash):

Did you know that some of America's infrastructure is being repaired after all?

The only catch is that major parts of the work are being done in China, meaning that many US construction workers stay unemployed.

Take for instance the massive $7.2 billion project to rebuild the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was compromised by earthquake damage.

The New York Times reports about a surge of construction employment on American projects such as the bridge, in China:

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules - each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field - will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China's continual move up the global economic value chain - from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners - as it aims to become the world's civil engineer.
Across the United States, Chinese workers are rebuilding America, according to the Times, "In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium."

While Congress dithers over a rebuild America program to employ US workers, the Chinese are getting the jobs.

Can you imagine the Brooklyn Bridge having been made in China?

It might very well have been were it constructed in 2011.

American artists and artisans never stopped "making things"

If a job can be sent to China or the Dominican Republic or Malaysia, it will be.

Manufacturing jobs were sent overseas by the millions during the past two decades. But that era may be over, according to Paul Krugman. Read his NYT column at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/opinion/20krugman.html?_r=1&hp

While we still have a deeply troubled economy, one piece of good news is that Americans are, once again, starting to actually make things. And we’re doing that thanks, in large part, to the fact that the Fed and the Obama administration ignored very bad advice from right-wingers — ideologues who still, in the face of all the evidence, claim to know something about creating prosperity.

Widgets can be made anywhere. So can certain gadgets.

I would like to know what parts of manufacturing are increasing. U.S. automakers are on a roll. Wind turbines are being made all over the U.S., including down the road in Colorado.

The Columbus Post-Dispatch wrote about hiring at the EdenPure plant which used to be the Hoover plant in North Canton, Ohio:

But the new hiring also reflects another emerging reality of U.S. manufacturing: Many of the jobs don't pay anything close to what they used to. Assembly-line workers who will be making the EdenPure products under the auspices of Suarez Corp. Industries will start at $7.50 an hour. That's a far cry from the $20 an hour that most workers made with Hoover, which shifted its century-old production lines to Mexico and El Paso, Texas, in 2007 after concluding that it was too expensive to make its products in the industrial Midwest. "The communities and workers in Ohio have been devastated over the past decade and are grateful for the opportunity to earn a living," said Robert Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Council. "But this is tempered by reality. One is that the jobs at Suarez, with wages and benefits well below the middle-class ones that were there before, are not a replacement for the ones that left."

Ohio workers will need three of these new manufacturing jobs to recoup what they lost with $20/hour union jobs. So let's hope a couple more plants like EdenPure come in to make other gadgets that can be made in China or Mexico again when the dollar strengthens. 

America is making things again. But at what cost? One of the Republican strategies is to kill the unions and bring everyone's wages down to the minimum wage level. That way people will be grateful for any job they can get at any salary (forget health care benefits). 

But "original work" can't be outsourced. An artisan in Wyoming who makes handmade bridles and saddles can't be replaced with a factory plopped down in China's Shaanxi Province. Not to say that Chinese can't make perfectly good saddles. They can be mass-produced and they will be made cheaply and will be cheap. The saddle has lost its originality and quality.

Mike, you may ask, aren't only rich people going to buy that expensive Made in the USA custom tooled-leather saddle? Possibly. The rich buy art. So do dudes and dudettes. We have some of those in Wyoming.

But regular folks buy saddles too. And make them. They make horsehair bridles. They make pots and compose music and write books. They are distinctive works of art that can't be mass-produced. You cannot outsource creativity.

So it's good to know that manufacturing jobs are returning to America -- and new ones are being created.

We artists and artisans were here all along. Buy local today!

Coming soon -- Wyoming coal-powered iPods

Did you know this:

Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway estimates that 500 pounds of coal are blown from each rail car for every 500 miles traveled?

Just one of the interesting facts in a Grist post and in a Sierra Magazine story about plans to ship Wyoming coal to China. The key element for the plan is to upgrade the Columbia River port in Longview, Wash. Environmentalists and the state government are resisting. May not be too much longer before money talks and the impasse is broken.

I'm reminded of that John Prine song, "Paradise:"

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

With a few changes of place names (apologies to Mr. Prine), here are the lyrics:

And daddy won't you take me back to Campbell County
Down by the Powder River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away 

To make iPods in China.

Campbell County isn't exactly paradise. And the Powder River was appropriately named. Many who live and work and ranch and write and sculpt there like it well enough. I have friends and colleagues in Gillette who think I live in the ugly part of the state.

Mixed feelings here about coal. The more Wyoming coal sold, the more royalties the state collects. The state coffer expands and my job is secure. It may be too much to hope for a raise, as the Wyoming Legislature is notoriously tight-fisted and, with its new Tea Party members, not in the mood for a spending spree.

All this to make iPods for the children of America? My children included?

There's the rub. China makes stuff we want and -- possibly -- need. We ship them coal thousands of miles and they ship us back iPods. I look around my study and see PCs and a digital camera and my DSL modem and surge protector and phone and photo frames and who knows what else. The only thing in this room I can vouch for as totally "Made in the U.S.A." is me, aging rapidly, and my mutt Coco stretched out on the floor for her mid-morning nap. Coco has a microchip (probably made in China) embedded in her hide. If needed, we can find her electronically if she ever disappears.

The articles are worth reading. Access them through your Wyoming coal-powered PCs.

Thank China's Cnooc for bringing some better-paying jobs to Wyoming

So, some of that money that we paid for Chinese-made gewgaws at Wal-Mart is finding its way back to Wyoming and Colorado. And the jobs that this overseas investment spawns are a cut above the pay scale of most Wyoming jobs, including those in state government. Here's a story from today's Denver Post:

Cnooc, China's largest offshore energy producer, has agreed to pay $570 million in cash for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy's Niobrara shale project in Colorado and Wyoming.

The deal is expected to accelerate drilling and job growth in the region, potentially adding as many as 1,600 direct jobs and a larger number of support jobs.

Cnooc also agreed to pay as much as $697 million, up to two-thirds of Chesapeake's costs to drill and complete wells in the area, the companies said Sunday.

--Snip--

The average pay for a rig employee, Dill said analysis has shown, is about $79,300. Jobs indirectly related to the rigs, such as pipe handlers and suppliers, pay about $64,000. Community-level support jobs on average pay about $36,400.

Those "community-level support jobs" no doubt include some of the better positions at Wal-Mart.

Median pay for various Wyoming jobs, according to payscale.com:

Project Manager, Construction, $61,865
Executive Director, Non-Profit Organization, $52,029
General / Operations Manager, $55,500
Retail Store Manager, $38, 194
Registered Nurse, $52,846
General Manager, Hotel, $46,500
Operations Manager, $50,000

Now if we can only figure out ways to ship more coal to China through Washington State we'll be set for life (although the planet will be worse off).

Read more at http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_17254746#ixzz1CljTRAzF

Old King Coal not such a merry old soul

Laramie River coal plant near Wheatland 

China burns half of the world's coal production every year. It pollutes its air and kills its people, making heart disease the nation's number one killer. China's fossil-fuel habit is one of the main culprits of global warming.

Wyoming and Montana companies dig thousands of tons of coal from the ground every day. Our power plants can't burn all that coal to send power to Colorado and Texas and Utah. Other U.S. plants can't burn that much coal. Many states, Texas included, are scrubbing plans for new coal-fired plants.

To fill China's endless coal appetite, and to contribute to the further spread of cardiopulmonary illnesses, our states want to export more coal to China. There's money to be made, too. Not only for the coal companies, but for severance taxes which pay the salaries of government workers such as myself.

But Washington state is getting in the way of progress.

The Cowboy State and The Treasure State want to ship their coal directly to Asia through a port in Cowlitz County, Washington (a.k.a. The Gateway to Mt. St. Helens). Officials in the county have approved an upgrade to its Columbia River port, but environmental groups say not so fast (from the Casper Star-Tribune). 

On Tuesday, the Washington Department of Ecology petitioned to intervene in the appeal filed by Earthjustice. Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke said the agency wants a seat at the table because it may be asked to approve other permits for the project.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer plans to travel to Washington state next week to seek support for the project. He said he's going to tell state officials it's irrational for them to oppose a port to export Montana coal when utilities that serve Washington state burn Montana coal.Freudenthal said Thursday that he would not expect Schweitzer to accomplish anything but making the trip. 

Freudenthal doubts Washington state officials will receive advice from someone from another state any more than Wyoming officials do when they get similar visits from an outsider. 

The immediate problem, Freudenthal said, is how to get the port exporting Wyoming coal. The larger issue is the need to figure out carbon capture and sequestration in order to receive support from the "rational" environmental groups, he said.

Meanwhile, Gov.-elect Matt Mead is working on a letter of support to send with Schweitzer next week, Mead spokeswoman Susan Anderson said Thursday. Mead takes office Monday. 

Freudenthal said people need to realize that the coal industry is "at risk" whether they agree that climate change is real or not. "This is about coal production, market share and jobs," Freudenthal said.

We're going to see more of these conflicts as we attempt to switch from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources that don't melt the ice caps and lead to the flooding of port cities from Seattle to San Diego. Red states want to ship their coal to China but the coastal blue states won't let them. No alternative but to send it to Houston and then on to the Panama Canal and then on to China. But that route would add time and miles and make the whole enterprise less cost-effective. The states could send the coal to Vancouver, B.C., which shipped about 26 million tons of coal to China this year. But how would that look, red-state Wyoming shipping its coal from Socialist Canada?

Even George Will is getting into the act. In a column this week, he could barely contain his glee that millions of tons of global-warming-contributing coal could be shipped out of a port adjacent to the Green Capital of the U.S. and maybe the world -- Portland, Oregon.

Cowlitz County in Washington state is across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore., which promotes mass transit and urban density and is a green reproach to the rest of us. Recently, Cowlitz did something that might make Portland wonder whether shrinking its carbon footprint matters.

I wonder why conservatives take such delight in destroying the planet? The fundies are all convinced that the end is coming anyway so why fight it? Doesn't matter to them if it's flood or fire. But George Will isn't in this Know Nothing camp. He's smarter than that. While he will no longer be with us when Washington Post columnists commute by gondola, one wonders why he doesn't care for the future of his family or your family or my family.

George Will makes his living by being the conservative curmudgeon in the bow tie. He's also a language scold and a know-it-all baseball fan. That's his platform and to turn Green (or even hint at it) at this late date will cost him.

He provides several quotes from James Fallows' recent cover story about coal in The Atlantic. In "Dirty Coal, Clean Future," Fallows makes the case that we can only get out of this hydrocarbon dilemma by trusting in China's new technologies to burn coal cleaner. The only way out is through. I just read the synopsis, but it seems as if Fallows would give a green light to the shipping of coal from Washington state. And the more we can ship, the better.

I'll read the article and respond. Meanwhile, here's a few parting words from George Will:

If the future belongs to electric cars, those in China may run on energy stored beneath Wyoming and Montana. 

And so run the hopes of the Govs of Wyoming and Montana.