RogerG

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018

A Mao Approach to Energy

California has taken a page from Mao’s book of rule, wittingly or unwittingly. On top of all the crony gimmies to solar, the state has ordered all new homes to have solar panels from 2020 on.

The brainchild of California’s eco-rulers.

Mao in his fevered imagination thought that he could order a massive increase in iron production by turning peasants into iron workers with their own “backyard smelters”. In like manner, California’s “Great Helmsmen” have similarly declared every homeowner to be a rooftop electricity producer. It all makes so much sense to the mandarins of the Party, Communist (China) or Democratic (Ca.). Details be damned.

Such a detail as economies of scale hasn’t really graced their mind. Instead, visions of millions backyard smelters, or rooftop solar panels, churning out iron, or electricity, excites their fancy.

California’s Great Leap Forward may end up like the last one: a disaster. China’s iron production went up for a brief moment but many other things went down. Ditto for California, just replace solar for iron. One of the things to go down will be home ownership. In a state already suffering from over-inflated home prices, they will be jacked up by a further $8,400 on average. That equates with pricing 444,385 families out of the market.

One of the consequences of California’s eco-rulers: a rise in the homelessness and the under-housed.

This Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 file photo shows tents from a homeless encampment line a street in downtown Los Angeles.

Whether the number of the negatively impacted is accurate or not, it is an effort to quantify another economic fact of life: the margin. The margin is the place of action in an economy. It defines prosperity and depression by referring to people who are sensitive to price changes. A rise in prices results in a slice of the buying public being cut out.

Want a home to raise your kids? Move to Texas.

It has always mesmerized me how a few hundred thousand rooftop solar panels are supposed to reverse the impact of China’s and India’s many huge dirty-coal plants. Only in the eco-dreamland can solar’s capacity factor of 18% correct for the nearly 60% of coal-fired plants. How’s that to happen?

Chinese workers commute as steam billows from a coal fired power plant in Shanxi, China. (Bloomberg)

Do we need any more proof that the term “well-managed” doesn’t apply to one-party states?

Please read the following sources:
https://thehill.com/…/387270-the-problem-with-california-go…
https://www.latimes.com/…/la-fi-solar-mandate-20181214-stor…
https://openei.org/wiki/Definition:Capacity_factor

RogerG

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018

California as the Black Knight

Please watch the youtube video of Monty Python’s black knight at the bridge.

The black knight’s condition reminds me of California’s business sector. A report by business relocation expert Joe Vranich says that 1,800 businesses have pulled up stakes and moved to other states, many to the Southwest, Northwest, and, of course, Texas. There’s no reason not to expect the trend to continue. What appears to be keeping the state afloat is LA digital media, Silicon Valley, and mostly foreign money. Two of the three are linked and rise and fall together. All are sensitive to the next downturn; and since the state’s economy is atrophying outside these economic islands, good luck. Good luck to all those people dependent on the state’s tax haul.

The state is downright hostile to business in all the well-known ways. And if that ain’t bad enough, it relishes in creating catch-22’s for nearly anyone who has a payroll to meet. The latest culprit is the recently passed California Immigrant Worker Protection Act. This piece of identity pandering makes it illegal for a businessman to cooperate with ICE. Of course, it’s a federal crime to not cooperate. Vranich’s advice: Get Out!

Here’s the article: https://www.investors.com/…/california-companies-leave-tax…/ .

Venezuela was the first black knight at the bridge. California has jumped in to take his place. Go figure.

RogerG

December 11, 2018December 11, 2018

The Camp Fire and Its Lessons

PARADISE, CA – NOVEMBER 09: Sacramento Metropolitan firefighters battle the Camp Fire in Magalia, Calif., Friday, November 9, 2018. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

A business that was destroyed by the Camp Fire continues to smolder on November 9, 2018 in Paradise, California.

If you’ve got time (about an hour and 20 minutes), please listen to this conversation between 2 radio hosts and Prof. Peter Kolb of the U. of Montana’s Dept. of Forest Management about the recent and deadly fires in California (below at the bottom). Prof. Kolb was a native Californian with family still living in the state. The “burning” question for most everyone concerns the extent California state policies have contributed to the danger of destructive wildland fires in the state. The quick and short answer shouldn’t be a quick and short answer. Yet, the prevailing climate of governing opinion in the state can’t be ignored, a view that leans in the direction of environmental preservation at nearly all costs. It is a factor bunched together with California’s unique conditions.

Here are some often-mentioned points to ponder:

(1) Climate change: Yes, we’re in a warming trend, but long term climate changes can’t be adjusted like your wall thermostat. Besides, unless you’re able to convince 2 billion Chinese and Indians to stop they’re economic growth, global mitigations are highly unlikely. Greenie energy like wind and solar aren’t a substitute for fossil fuels in propelling a poor country into prosperity. Period.

Indian coal-fired power plant. (Image by Smeet Chowdhury)

(2) Drought: It’s a fact of life regardless of warming trends, and it’s only exacerbated by the state’s hot dry-summer climate. This raises the concerns about the state’s measures, if any, to alleviate the annually recurring dry spells. Do they intensify or lessen the fire danger? There’s reason to doubt the efficacy of many of the policies that might exist.

(3) Foliage: California has biomes uniquely suited to its annual and extensive dry periods such as chaparral on the coasts and foothills . These are plants that can survive the dry periods alongside the dry grasses and dead forest litter. If the under-story of “fine fuels” ignites, a fire will race through with mounting intensity.

(4) El Diablo, the Santa Anas: These eastern hot and dry winds are a natural feature of California’s climate. They exist regardless of climate change. Since they are as persistent as the coastal surf, what has the state done to deal with their inevitable consequences? My guess: nothing much.

(5) Development practices in WUI (Wild-Urban-Interface): This refers to the aesthetic preference of many residents in the state for trees and brush against building walls in that uneven zone between wildlands and structures. It’s a disaster-in-waiting in times of hot, dry, and windy conditions in California’s dry-summer biomes.

Residence in Paradise, Ca. Pay close to the landscaping with its foliage adjacent to the structure.

(6) California’s policies: It’s a state in the grip of environmentalism. The “ism” is a single-minded preference for a form of nature preservation without humans. Wildland management policies reflect this bias. Fuel builds up in the hinterlands due to restrictions on measures to reduce the fuel load. Such as, the state requires a “forest management plan” to remove dead trees and brush on a person’s property. Of course, the rule and regulations about it are enforced by an elaborate bureaucracy. Be prepared to spend $5,000-$10,000.

Tree mortality at Bass Lake, Sierra National Forest.

(7) California’s decaying infrastructure: The state’s water storage and delivery systems are now approaching 5 decades or older and were built for a population half the size. In like manner, decades of greenie mandates and regulations are corrupting the state’s grid. Rising electricity demands on an aging grid can contribute to mishaps like the one just outside of Paradise, Ca. California’s answer is to raise taxes on an already over-taxed population, all the while undermining the physical grid by forcing the utilities to subsidize greenie visions of utopia at the expense of maintenance. And of course, the governing classes will answer with a call to raise rates.

Power lines and electrical equipment are a leading cause of California wildfires. Increased loads on the lines cause them to sag. (photo:Los Angeles Times)

Solar and wind farm, Palm Springs, Ca. With so much emphasis on “sustainable” sources, the traditional grid has the potential to suffer from reduced upkeep.
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

In the end, California has the worst roads, a dilapidated water system, an energy grid that is environmentally snazzy but aging into incontinence, and the all-too-familiar recurrence of fires capable of reproducing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just saying.

Please watch the video (see below).

RogerG

The video link:

https://www.facebook.com/newstalkkgvo/videos/369303803803244/?t=2

December 9, 2018December 9, 2018

Viva la Gilets Jaunes!

Californians in November meekly went to the polls to shoot down an attempt to lower their gas taxes. Over the recent number of days, rural and blue-collar French hit the streets of Paris to riot against a 5% increase in taxes on gasoline prices already exceeding $6/gal. The contrast is striking (no pun intended).

Why the outburst in Paris? The citizens in the countryside and the blue-collar middle class are tired of shouldering the burden of the climate-change fixations of their urban and wealthier “betters”. “Climate change” is more than a scientific matter. It’s code for the fixers in the nomenklatura/academy alliance, buttressed by the upscale elect and their fashionable beliefs, to manipulate the lives of those not so privileged.

So, we get with the French a replay of 1789; while in California, docility. Interesting. Will the meek inherit the earth, or will it be adult firmness? My bet is on “meekness” till it becomes unbearable.

Viva la gilets jaunes (yellow vests)! But put a hold on the violence.

RogerG

December 9, 2018December 9, 2018

What Its Like to be a Real Man

Watch Vice President Mike Pence’s eulogy for President George H.W. Bush. He says it far better than I could write it.

Compare the senior Bush with those presidents that came after him. Bill Clinton was, and ultimately remained, a frat boy with a lefty tinge at Bush’s age but George was flying an Avenger torpedo bomber and being shot at by the Japanese (downed twice).

A young George Bush, center, with Joe Reichert, left, and Leo Nadeau during World War II. (Robert B. Stinnett/National Archives)

George HW Bush is rescued by USS Finback, Sept. 2, 1944. (Credit: PHOTOSHOT)

His son, George W., went into the Air National Guard. Then we have Barack Obama who at the same age went to Occidental and later Columbia to major in poli sci, smoke some pot, and dabble in socialist glamfests (for instance, the Socialist Scholars Conference), all in preparation for a life as a lefty agitator. Finally, we have our current and petulant twitter-in-chief, Donald Trump. He inherited daddy’s wealth and spent the rest of his life as a celebrity developer at the same time as many of his peers were risking their lives in jungles across the Pacific, as the elder Bush did in WWII.

Barack Obama in college. Occidental or Columbia? (Getty images)

Some have placed the moniker of “wimp” on the elder Bush. Such labeling is evidence of how present clichés insult the past. George H.W. Bush came from a time when a calming tone of voice and a code of decency were signs of good upbringing. How could he be a “wimp” when he was the youngest Navy aviator, survivor of two splashdowns, and still persisted in being launched from a carrier till the war ended (50+ launches)? We are so shallow today that voice and propriety can be used against you.

We could have done so much worse as we did with 3 of the 4 (maybe 4 of 4 depending on your rankings) that came after him. I salute you, President George H.W. Bush.

RogerG

December 3, 2018December 3, 2018

Another Puff Piece Within the Society of Progressive Mutual Admirers

The “Society” in the title refers to a loose body of people and organizations who have similar backgrounds and enough of a common orthodoxy to distinguish as an identifiable social element, like, for instance, Protestants. In this case, it’s the background identifiers of degreed/middle-to-upper-class/urban/seemingly-professional and progressive/left in their philosophical orthodoxy. The “Puff Piece” in the title is the all-too-familiar journalistic softball interview with overtones of saccharine flattery that’s reserved for prominent people in the news who confirm the Society’s biases.

Case in point: “Seeking a Safe, Green Colombia” in National Geographic Magazine of January 2018 about Colombia’s ex-president, Juan Manuel Santos. He gets the treatment because he’s said to be about “peace” and he chants the clerisy’s doctrines on “climate change”. He knows the lingo and says all the right things. Thus, he’s beatified. Look at the magazine’s saintly photo from the article.

The “peace” part of his beatification has to do with his cramming down the throats of Colombians a detested agreement with FARC, the narco-terrorist organization. When put on the ballot, Colombians rejected it despite the weight of the world coming down on them to approve it. So, Santos got around those pesky voters with a jam-down in the legislature.

And what of the agreement? First off, Colombians hate FARC. Next, the settlement gave amnesty to murderers, bribed the killers to stop the killing and mayhem, and rewarded them with seats in parliament. For millions of FARC’s victims, what’s not to like?

Victims of FARC protest in Colombia during the peace talks with FARC.

And for that, the guy wins the Nobel Peace Prize. But what really earns his elevation to sainthood is his expressed worship of the clerisy’s iconography of “climate change” with statements like “… we are destroying Mother Earth”. For the Society’s parishioners, that’ll do it.

No such treatment was accorded the previous president, Alvaro Uribe, the winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. But he doesn’t sing the Society’s doctrines and he opposed the terrorist cave-in. What a flawed world we live in.

Ex-Colombian President Alvaro Uribe receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Pres. George W. Bush in 2009.

RogerG

December 1, 2018December 1, 2018

Millennials With Another Black Eye?

I know, I know, it’s faulty thinking to draw grand conclusions about an entire generation on a sample of one or a few individuals. For millennials, they’ve been given a bad rap for a host of alleged sins. Yet, a certain type is beginning to recur among them in my explorations of news and information: the ill-informed college-educated in positions of societal influence. A classic example of the phenomena appeared yesterday in an interview of Luke Zaleski by Hugh Hewitt.

Zaleski seems to be in his mid-to-late 30s, a U. of Delaware graduate in Philosophy, and is currently Legal Affairs Editor for Condé Nast publications. He exhibits much of the hyper-progressivism of the deeply-entrenched left in today’s media, replete with a dislike for Trump and Republicans, an embrace of identity politics, and rampant victimology. And its all wrapped in a thin verneer of knowledge and understanding.

For example, here’s Zaleski on Hewitt’s lack of “diversity” in the previous day’s guests – Mike Lupica (sports writer), Sen. Tom Cotton (R, Arkansas), and Sen. John Cornyn (R, Texas):
“I feel like the sports world … would benefit from having more people of color and women … prominent in the conversations.” The diversity schtick on parade, eh? As for Cotton and Cornyn, he says, “… these guys are kind of the enemies of progress”.

Zelaski on his level of understanding of history as it relates to today’s issues and climate of opinion:
Hewitt asked him, “…was Alger Hiss a communist spy?” Zaleski dodged the question by mentioning Wikipedia and “I’m not a historian. I’m not an expert. I’m not interested in conspiracy theories. I’m not interested in debating Alger Hiss”. Mmmmm.

Another example of more recent history, Hewitt asked him, “Have you read The Looming Tower?” The quick and short of it, No! Since he didn’t mention any other book on the rise of international terrorism, I can assume he doesn’t read in depth, particularly on that topic.

Zaleski’s unfamiliarity with the principal characters involved in Iran’s export of its brand of Islamic extremism was evident when Hewitt asked him, “What is your opinion of Qasem Soleimani?” Zaleski’s answer: “I’m not familiar with that person.”

Remember that this guy, Zaleski, is an editor in a major media organization (look up Condé Nast).

Zaleski showed profound ignorance of nuclear weapons. Hewitt asked him, “So which part of the nuclear triad needs fixing the most?” Zaleski jumped to an unresponsive generality, “I’d like to see global denuclearization.” Related questions about our weapons systems were similarly met with befuddlement.

As a “Legal Affairs Editor”, one would think Zaleski has some legal training or even a law degree. Well, no. His background is as a “fact checker” for 20 years. Since “legal” is his beat, you’d think that he would be aware of the Supreme Court’s recent 8-0 smackdown of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its abuse of the Endangered Species Act. But no.

I could present more on the interview but I think that you get the idea. A modern college education does not, ipso facto, dispel ignorance, let alone promote wisdom.

RogerG

Here’s the link to the transcripts of the interview: http://www.hughhewitt.com/luke-zaleski-legal-affairs-editor-at-conde-nash-former-director-of-research-at-gq/?fbclid=IwAR3Scthy-2tCxV5gKtPCKq5A79eMp-FkG7mK5R0n7UrtrbZSDqtqBEhiq3A

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

Tax Drunkenness in the Golden State

How is it possible that California gave the country Ronald Reagan, especially seen from this point in time? In 2016, Hillary’s victory margin over Trump in California was 4.3 million votes. Her nationwide popular vote bested him by 2.9 million. That means she lost by 1.4 million everywhere else. California is to the Democrats what Saudi Arabia is to the oil market. California’s blue is darkening to black – and “black” as in black hole of intergalactic fame, not race. And that means an intoxication with taxes. All that government with its programs and fashionable crusades is expensive.

The blueness has tailed off into self-flagellation. California voters this year had the opportunity to free itself of its 12 cents/gal gas tax increase but Prop. 6 failed spectacularly (51-45 early in the count) . People in the state like their high taxes. Oh, I suppose at least partly, they see it as absolutely essential in saving the planet, even though the scheme was billed as a way to pay for roads and bridges that couldn’t be paid by the state’s other astronomically high taxes.

But I don’t see how California’s 36 million population will have much sway in lowering the planet’s temps when compared to 2 billion Chinese and Indians (the subcontinent variety). The denizens of the rest of the world now know that living in the dirt isn’t the only option. Their elevation out of the hut isn’t going to happen by forsaking carbon and living according to the precepts of Marin County “sustainability” … and Zambians know it. Don’t expect such inescapable logic to penetrate the state’s semi-literate hipsters and coastal fashionistas in their wine soirées.

Evidence of tax inebriation didn’t have to wait for the 2018 midterms and Prop 6. No sooner had the Republican House and Senate blasted their tax cuts to the president’s desk for his signature in 2018 than the suzerains of the state’s ruling party went into hyper-drive to undermine them even before Trump’s ink was dry.

Bills began popping up in the state’s legislature to stick it to “corporations”, the nomenclature of virtue-signaling for today’s hip lefties. The Dems’ Kevin McCarty boasted, “It’s time for middle class tax justice”. What does “middle class tax justice” look like? Well, it means to shaft California businesses with a jump in the corporate tax rate from 21 to 35 percent. The “middle class” shtick is more virtue-signaling to the state’s real overburdened and shrinking middle class – overburdened by the likes of McCarty and his colleagues.

Getting beyond the boilerplate rhetoric, though, it’s just plain ol’ vengeance for losing in 2016.

Now, what to do about the tax-cut bill’s undeniable justice in refusing to continue to force low-tax states to bail out high-tax states with a complete federal write-off of exorbitant state and local taxes, the “state and local tax deduction” (SALT)? The puppy love of tax-happy states for nearly everything government is the well-spring for ingenious ways to hide some of their grossest taxes in other deductible categories. That other tax-drunk jurisdiction – NY – wants to disguise them in the payroll tax. Gov. Brown and his fellow lefty bootleggers in Sacramento – I’m not kidding you – want to turn their taxes into charitable giving. Yeah, it’s called the California Excellence Fund. But there’s a problem with the ploy: the IRS code declares that the giver can’t benefit for it to be genuine charity. Oh well, back to the drawing boards.

As of April 9, 2018, $269 billion in new taxes were wafting through the California state legislature. And to top it off, the midterms ushered into power more tax-happy Dems. I’m beginning to wonder if many of the state’s voters should be tested for alcohol poisoning before entering the voting booth. This goes way beyond the .06 limit. What’s holding them up as they punch the ballot?

RogerG

Bibliography:

“It’s Official: Clinton’s Popular Vote Win Came Entirely From California”, John Merline, Investor’s Business Daily, 12/16/2016, https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/its-official-clintons-popular-vote-win-came-entirely-from-california/
“Election results 2018: Proposition 6 gas tax repeal crashes, burns [Updated]”, Adam Brinklow, Curbed: San Francisco, 11/7/2018, https://sf.curbed.com/2018/11/7/18071282/election-night-2018-california-prop-6-gas-tax-repeal-rejected
“High-Tax States Reach For Gimmicks”, Milton Ezrati, Forbes, 2/16/2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/miltonezrati/2018/02/16/high-tax-states-reach-for-gimmicks/#6fddec4185c5
“$269 billion in new state taxes and fees proposed”, Dawn Hodson, Mountain Democrat, 4/9/2018, https://www.mtdemocrat.com/news/269-billion-in-new-state-taxes-and-fees-proposed/
“‘Time for middle class tax justice’: California corporate tax bill offsets Trump cuts”, Alexei Koseff, The Sacramento Bee, 1/18/2018, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article195434569.html
“California Bills Acknowledge Federal Tax Changes, Don’t Conform”, Laura Mahoney, Bloomberg News, 5/4/2018, https://www.bna.com/california-bills-acknowledge-n57982092512/

October 28, 2018

Going Pink in a Red State

The arbitrary red/blue designations of our election maps.

Going “red” in an antifa march at Berkley, Aug. 27, 2017.

By pink I mean a shade of red with red being the historical color of international socialism, not the confusing and arbitrary assignments in our election maps. Wherever an urban complex exists today, particularly one with a college, you could bet that the prevailing ethos takes a decidedly leftward lurch no matter its location. Going back to the bewildering nomenclature of our election maps, a collectivist “red” partisan can thrive in a conservative “red” state like Montana. Take the durability of “D” Jon Tester in “R” Montana for instance.

The guy is poised on winning another 6-year lease in the Senate. How could it be possible? A bit of hocus pocus and the monolithic leftward lurch in the state’s urban areas is the magic elixir for success. The state won’t go full California but it could move that way incrementally.

Tester’s campaign managers (from the film “Hocus Pocus”).

You might say that Tester is a paler pink than Maxine Waters (D, Ca.), Nancy Pelosi (D, Ca.), or Kamala Harris (D, Ca.). He dilutes his pink with down-home earthiness. It’s smoke-and-mirrors. The gambit succeeds in Montana by pulling in enough rural to combine with the urban that he owns. It allows him to go NY/California on the big issues like Supreme Court nominations (“no” on Gorsuch, Kavanaugh), tax cuts (“no”), and be an enthusiast in gumming up the works.

And don’t dare dismiss compromises on gun rights since he frolics with people who would be gaga over the repeal of the Second Amendment.

So, Montana ends up with a Kamala Harris-best-buds-for-life all because he looks enough of the part to disguise his pinkish cavorting in the halls of Congress. It’s textbook on how to craft an airy persona for people who don’t have the time for the cable-tv fever swamp.

Matt Rosendale, Tester’s Republican challenger.

His opponent, Matt Rosendale, let him get away with it. Rosendale wasn’t on the air till long after Tester had him branded. So, a “red” state will have a senator on good relations with the “red” mob.

A more recent version of the “red” mob and Tester’s co-ideologists.

RogerG

October 9, 2018October 10, 2018

One Final Thought: The Perfect False Allegation

Christine Blasey-Ford testifying on Sept.27.

This is my planned (emphasis on “planned”) final thought on the Kavanaugh fracas since Justice Kavanaugh is now safely on the Court. The Blasey-Ford story was truly the perfect false allegation. She weaved a tale without a place and time, leaving aside the complete lack of witnesses. Thus, how could it be refuted? Any statement missing these details cannot be empirically examined. A defense based on alibis is almost impossible. It’s the perfect charge for igniting the mob for a political lynching.

Blasey-Ford’s tale should be treated no different from a clearly proven false allegation, with the exception of fitting a new pair of handcuffs on the perjurer. The story can’t elicit any action by anyone with adult reasoning, and needs to be handled with discretion and not in a public forum under the glare of partisan predators and their street mob. If it were otherwise, we’re back to political vengeance meted out by the Paris mob of the French Revolution.

A Parisian mob storms the Hotel de Ville in 1789.

Sad that the Democratic Party has become the leading advocate of mob rule.

I plan no further comments, barring the elevation of Jerry Nadler (D, NY) to the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee. He promises impeachment-mania to satisfy the bloodlust of the lefty street mobs.

RogerG