So climate change is a big topic and a big problem. Many misguided people have tried to say what we currently are suffering is a "natural, normal climate variation". Well, decades of data on weather, oceans, fires clearly show that what we are suffering from is NOT normal. These decades of data also clearly show this is caused by humans.
So humans have made this mess. So, it is up to us to fix it. Now by "fixing" climate change I really mean mitigate the effects. Everyone has an area that they want to blame on another human activity. An example is: the massive fires in California were caused by mismanagement of the national forests by the Federal government.
I look and listen about climate change and then I become paralyzed by what needs to be done. I have information overload. When I get overloaded by choices, I do what everyone does: nothing. It is just too much. So I'm going to try to help narrow the field of choices.
First off no one has the money to go out and buy new appliances, buy an electric vehicle, put up a wind mill. But we can do smaller simpler things. One person doing something simple can multiply into a lot of people doing that same thing which leads to helping our climate crisis.
So here goes my first suggestions: LED light bulbs and smart plugs.
I bet that a lot of us have the good old incandescent light bulbs. They will burn out. They will need to be replaced. When they do buy an LED bulb. Now don't pass out from the sticker shock. They will be $15 or a little more. But they last 25,000 to 50,000 hours. That incandescent bulb lasted about 2000 hours. So great savings. It also keeps you off the ladder when you have to change out the light bulbs in the ceiling.
The second suggestion: smart plugs and advance power strips. Now this gets a little trickier because there are a lot of choices. The reason to look into smart plugs/strips are the "ghost users" also called phantom users. No not Casper but rather the

electronics that we love and need. Many of our TV's, computers, microwaves, phone
chargers when not being actively used are constantly
using just a little trickle of power. So I only use the microwave for about 6 minutes a day but the microwave is in the constant state of being ready at a moments notice. The other 1436 minutes it is just taking a tiny bit of power so as to be ready for my six minutes of use.
A smart plug or strip will help you to turn off the power completely to that electrical appliance. So it basically is a switch that turns off all access to electricity. You can buy individual plugs or a smart power strip that will turn off everything that is plugged into it. Depending on your electric provider you may be eligible for a rebate.
If you want to be really cheap, just unplug the appliance/TV/Phone charger from the wall. It just requires you to remember the plug/unplug sequence.
I did a little investigation into who provides electricity to Grady County. There are a total of five. The two biggest are PSO and OEC. There is all kinds of information on their websites. I have them listed below.

PSO www.psoklahoma.com
OEC www.okcoop.org
CK Energy www.ckenergy.coop
Cotton Electric www.cottonelectric.com
Rural Electric www.recok.coop

Meeting Notes from July

For our September meeting, we had an amazing meeting. Cyndi Munson, OK House Minority Leader and candidate for governor, was our incredible speaker, and we are so glad she came. We are excited to see her elected as the next governor of Oklahoma!

In case you have been living under a rock at the bottom of the sea, you have by now figured out that #47's Criminal Regime has declared war on We the People. Besides all the cuts to programs that support those in need, this Criminal Regime has unconstitutionally utilized troops from the armed forces as well as National Guard units to invade cities like Los Angeles and Washington D.C. His Criminal Regime tried to send troops to Chicago, but that didn't work out so instead they sent them to Memphis, another city with a large Black population and headed by a Black mayor. These unconstitutional actions on the part of #47's Criminal Regime are not to clean up crime, as they claim, but rather are meant to sow chaos, fear and terror.

The citizens of Los Angeles are fighting back with their rapid responder teams who when spotting ICE=GESTAPO presence, do their best to warn the community and to slow down and shame those agents. (Check out L.A.TACO) Now, I've been involved with immigrant populations for decades, having married an Afro-Dominican co-worker while in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic (1979-82). I've also worked with Spanish-speaking immigrants while with Oklahoma City Public Schools in the Bilingual Program. I know that the immigrant population commits crimes at about half the rate of natural born citizens. So, if the real reason for deportation was to remove immigrant criminals, the #47's Criminal Regime could start with all those currently in state and federal prisons. But that is not the purpose of these ICE=GESTAPO raids, as stated earlier... the purpose is to create chaos, confusion, fear and terror, NOT to clean up crime.

And then we have Governor Stitt who recently launched a program to remove homeless encampments in Tulsa. This governor went on television and called anyone concerned about people who have no place to live “goodie two shoes.” Such compassion. Such empathy. And how can we forget the vile FOX commentator, Brian Kilmeade, who on the 10th of this month casually suggested that perhaps what people without homes need is a lethal injection or just to be killed if they are not willing to either go to jail or to a shelter. And lo, and behold, on the 15th of this month someone shot up a homeless encampment in Minnesota, where, as far as I understand, no one has died, but 13 were injured.

Last week, the day after our monthly meeting with our next Oklahoma governor, Cyndi Munson, the right-wing extremist Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a live outdoor event at Utah Valley University, leaving all present terrorized. The #47's Criminal Regime immediately began spewing misinformation about the shooter, stating that a left-wing person was behind this tragedy. This was eventually proved to be false and law enforcement continue to investigate, after the young white male involved was turned in by his parents, both MAGA supporters.

The #47's Criminal Regime is using the unnecessary death of Charlie Kirk as an excuse to attempt to further crack down on anyone who does not agree with them, first with a mandatory moment of silence, then by calling for the cancellation of late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. These actions by this #47's Criminal Regime is going to backfire. The more panicked #47 becomes, the more he rails at anyone holding opposing views, the more it is galvanizing the opposition.

All this to say again that #47's Criminal Regime has declared war on We the People of this country. The hate-filled rhetoric of #47 has real world consequences. What are we, the members of Grady County Democratic Party, going to do about these unconstitutional actions by our federal government?

Our Action Squad, while suspending our local protests against the ICE=GESTAPO raids, out of an abundance of caution, will continue to meet Thursday mornings and find ways we can impact politics locally.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

OCT 12 – MONTHY MEETING, 6:30 PM, @ the Emerson Room in Austin Hall at USAO, Chickasha, OK
This will be a planning meeting with no special guest speaker. Come with your ideas and enthusiasm!

NOV 11 – MONTHY MEETING, 6:30 PM, @ the Emerson Room in Austin Hall at USAO, Chickasha, OK
Jeff Pixley, Congressional District 4 Candidate, will be our guest speaker.