The California Air Resource Board (an unelected regulatory body) is pushing for California to join the EU and Canada in only allowing EVs to be sold in the state by 2035. The state (like the EU and Canada) is unprepared for such a change over as it only has about one-third of the necessary charging stations, plus the electric grid is not able to manage hundreds of thousands of EVs all charging at the same time.  One of the suggestions is that EV owners should spend several thousands of dollars (on top of the already inflated EV prices) to install solar panel at their homes. At the same time, there is no industry in place to dispose of or recycle either old EV batteries millions of solar panels which are nearing their twenty-five-year life cycle.

Of course, powering all the EVs will require either additional nuclear generating plants, or a vast increase in fossil-based plants which will hardly insure the zero-emission goal for 2035. There are no plans, funding or clearing of environmental lawsuits from numerous special interest groups for an expansion of fossil or nuclear facilities so the practical feasibility of success by 2035 would require a crash program of funding and construction. There is no such talk to support the reality of sufficient supply except for the thirty billion in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act which will have to spread over all fifty states. The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant #2 in Tennessee took forty years to build and two new plants in Georgia have seen their costs rise from fourteen to twenty-three billion ($14 billion to $23 billion).

The linked article points out that “the future is eclectic, not electric.”

https://www.city-journal.org/how-hybrids-can-beat-electric-vehicles-on-emissions

“What we have here, is a failure to communicate.”  That is one of the most famous movie lines of all time. It could be altered to sum up the average person’s view of government; “What we have here is a failure to listen to your citizens.”  We seem to have a growing belief that government, at many levels, goes about its business without caring about the people it is there to serve, without learning from their failed policies. Government (and in this specific instance, the Federal government) seems to go on its merry way, instituting policies that fail time far more than they are successful; ignoring basic rules of economics and human nature, is wasteful and those who are entrusted with the wealth of the land are incompetent and corrupt while being without fear of retribution. I must admit that the government is excellent at merchandising, a prime being the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act which has little to do with reducing inflation and much to do with vast sums of borrowed money given to a select few political favored industries which have yet to live up to even minimally acceptable standards.

We live in a time where politicians can lie and change the standards by which they are judged. The traditional definition of when a recession starts is thrown out, or the border is secure even through we can see that millions have entered our country illegally. Too many politicians seem to believe in telling the big lie; tell it often enough and it will become the truth.

We have a trust deficit because politicians have become so arrogant in their distain to the average person. Perhaps they believe that because they are re-elected so many times, despite their policy failures, the average person really must be stupid. What other explanation can there be for their hold on office? But the average person is beginning to awaken; it has happened before in our nation, when the lies, corruption and cronyism became so blatant that the people literally did “throw the bums out.”  Are we approaching that time? When our politicians and their families make millions working with a foreign power determined to replace us, when our leaders institute economic policies which destroy the opportunity for a better life, we need to see a day of reckoning.

The attached article provides examples of how government speak is wearing thin as reality hits more citizens. It is time for the “protected” class to feel some of the pain their inflict on the “unprotected” citizens. The actions of busing a few thousand illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities is having an effect (although I would prefer, they be bussed to certain parts of Delaware and around the neighborhoods of those pols who distain border walls). Americans are losing confidence in the ruling class; all they want is to be told the truth and to have accountability. If that is too difficult for today’s political leadership, then they deserve to reap what they sow.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/28/team-biden-denies-were-in-a-recession-americans-dont-trust-government/

“Ladies and Gentlemen (whoops, cannot use those terms any longer), excuse me. Attention all passengers. As you can see for our scheduled flight this morning, we are providing you with the choice of two airplanes. The plane on the left is being piloted by Captain Richards. He was trained to fly by the U.S. Air Force and was a pilot for twenty years before joining us. He is however, as you can see, quite White and is an example of White privilege. The second plane is piloted by Captain Andrews who has a few years of flying and was hired to help us fulfill our goal of greater diversity. In addition to being a minority, he is also gay. We ask you to pick the plane of your choice for this flight. Thank you.”

In the U.K., the goal is to have forty percent of air force pilots be women by 2030. That means that the entry for white males has been stopped. The officer in charge of recruitment, a woman, has resigned over the new directive as she was under the impression that her job was to find the best pilots, regardless of sex, race, etc. How amusing.

Does those two scenarios sound crazy? One is factual (the second) the other is, well, you will not necessarily get the “best” pilot, but you will not know it. Do you believe that certain professions, such as doctors, attorneys, airline mechanics and yes, pilots should be filled with the “best” possible individuals? In all likelihood, you do, especially when your life and safety depend on individuals such as these. The problem, however, is the definition of “best.”

For Southwest airlines, it seems that the “best” candidates cannot be judged by traditional methods, but rather by some more rather “progressive” standards. But I am sure you do not mind as the most important thought in your mind when you fly, is, “I certainly hope the pilot was hired on good, sound, Woke principles.”  Oh, and if the flight attendant is not providing the service you expected, at least they were deemed sufficient based on the new, improved standards.

Let us hope that the formula, diversity+equity=lower standards does not apply the next time your fly.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/woke-airline-policies-threaten-safety-workers-say_4652851.html

One of the most hotly contested rules of the Covid lockdown was the various mask mandates. Wearing a mask was a mark of subservience to the unscientific political whims of elected officials who suddenly seemed to believe that they had secret knowledge of Covid. The rules and exemptions were often silly and illogical, such as being allowed to not wear a mask when dining out, but if you went to the washroom, you needed to wear the mask while in transit. Or, if on an airplane, keep the mask on during flight service but you could quickly slip it down while taking a sip of your beverage. Somehow Covid would be too slow to attack you or slip past your uncovered mouth during those couple of seconds. It always struck me as odd that healthcare workers often had to wear hazmat suits while treating patients, but we could all help stop Covid by wearing a cheap piece of cloth for days on end.

Finally, we are seeing some studies which show that wearing masks may be a wonderful way to be virtue signaling, but aside from puffing up one’s ego, it does little if anything to successfully fight off Covid.

As much of the world is finding out, “green” energy is expensive. Electricity rates in Germany are 3-4 times higher than in the U.S., in California they are 2-3 times higher than in the rest of the U.S., the list goes on and on. Added to this is the fact that it is unreliable and even if all noble targets were reached, the world would still get 75% of it’s energy from fossil fuels.

But the numbers are even worse than we think, for the rates do not include the subsidies which we all pay for delivery for unreliable service. In 2017, the Department of Energy found that subsidies to the “green” sector were running ten times higher than to fossil fuels. This does not include the problem yet unsolved, of disposal of wind turbine blades (mostly buried in some remote location), recycling of solar panels and batteries which have outlived their efficiency, etc.

The promise of efficient, clean, and dependable “green” energy is a myth. The cost of “green” energy has not gone down, the cost of electric autos continues to climb, and we face the fact that lower- and middle-income families are subsidizing electric cars for the wealthier; this is a transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest. Robin Hood in reverse.

The article below has the nerve to include all the costs involved in going “green.”  The energy czar still flies on his private jet, not one auto in the President’s garage has gone electric but you are paying more for the privilege of going to work, buying food, and simply trying to make a better life. How long will this be allowed to go on?

In his excellent novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, the author, Amor Towles writes about early Soviet equalitarianism. The main character (the Gentleman) having placed his luncheon meal of a fennel and orange salad, followed by osso buco, ordered a bottle of San Lorenzo Barolo, 1912. The waiter asked if it was a red wine and the Gentleman, a bit taken aback for he was in a fine hotel restaurant, confirmed it with good grace.

Before the wine arrived, the Gentleman had an opportunity to speak to the manager who explained that the waiter was brought on as an employee “because he knew someone.”  Then the manager asked his guest to follow him to the wine cellar, which was one of the best in Moscow with over ten thousand cases of wine. To the dismay of the Gentleman, he found the labels had been soaked off every bottle, so there were only white wines and red wines. The explanation was that under the new Soviet system, it was unfair for one wine to cost more than another, hence the stripping of the labels. Now, all wines were equal.

I mention this tale as it leads quite well into the column by Heather Mac Donald on the great levelling in our medical schools. Under the cover of battling racism and providing equity, many schools are dropping grades based on levels of knowledge and replacing them with the simple pass/fail system. This is because the universities are demanding medical students be actively involved in the battle against racism based on the goal of wanting to, “prioritize an integrate the voices and ideas of people and communities experiencing great injustice and historically excluded, exploited and deprived of needed resources such as people of color, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, and those in rural and urban communities.”  These concepts are pushed so hard, that the medical students do not have sufficient time to study medicine. Hence, the dumbing down of a profession. Are Maoist self-critical confessions next?

There use to be a good argument for getting a younger doctor as they could be more open to new medicines, procedures, and technology. Those days may be behind us. More and more it appears that diversity+equity=lowering standards.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/woke-medical-organizations-are-hazardous-to-your-health-equity-scientific-progress-social-justice-medical-organizations-11659707075?page=1

In his novel, 1984, George Orwell was writing not a piece of fiction, but a representation of what he had seen and experienced while he was involved in the Spanish Civil War. Throughout his book are various phrases which are part of a new language created by the totalitarian leaders of the society. Just as we have experienced a national candidate who could label millions of her fellow citizens “deplorables” and note that they are burdened by a myriad of sins (all described as “phobias”), we now have politicians who tell us that spending billions of dollars will incur no cost and that we are in transistion without ever saying what we are in transistion too. It is that type of thinking which makes Orwell’s novel so timeless as we move forward “progressively”, sure in our rightheous and purity.

The actual definition of Crimestop is “the faculty of stopping short, as thought by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…and of being bored and repelled by any train of though which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”

Crimestop provides a wonderfully safe blanket of neutralized thought. It allows one to cancel out all those pesky doubts and questions when supported policies and programs fail time after time, or when the actual cost of an idea becomes reality. How comforting is Crimestop! Only the young and immature need pictures of puppies and plush toys, the skilled believer has Crimestop.

One of the drawbacks of the old affirmative action programs was the realization that any individual of a minority who completed a university degree program or was hired for a position would always be viewed as less than qualified; in effect, there was a fear that those individuals only attained that degree or position because they were the beneficiary of affirmative action. It did not matter if they received top grades, they were the beneficiary of “that’ program. It did not matter if they were a good lawyer or doctor, they only got their position because of “that” program. I personally know of individuals who had to face that type of behind the back comments and it took years of solid, proven achievements before those comments finally died. Affirmative action was a program that created a mindset of suspicion; if your new doctor is a minority, are they competent or did they just get by thanks to affirmative action?

Once again, we find official programs being enforced that will again cause each of us to worry about the competency of our doctors, dentists, etc. In the article linked below, there is a war on excellence based on the religion of “wokeness.”  The Association of American Medical Colleges, representing over 170 US and Canadian medical schools has developed and implemented new requirements based on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

There seems to be a war on food; worldwide, we see national leaders following policies which have been proven to lessen the amount of food, increase prices on food and create social upheaval. The attached article points out that the Netherlands, the worlds second-largest exporter of agricultural goods by value after the U.S., is determined to shut down over 11,000 livestock farms and have another 17,600 farmers reduce their herds. The noble goal is to reduce the amount of nitrogen and ammonia emissions to protect European nature areas.

What is interesting is that the same national leaders are not producing solutions to problems what will occur by their actions. Higher unemployment, higher food prices, a loss of international trade, etc. And these actions fly in the known result of such “green” policies as exhibited in Sri Lanka where widespread rioting led to not only a reversal of “green” policies, but the overthrow of the government. Worldwide, we see similar actions such as in Canada where the government has a goal of cutting nitrates by thirty percent within eight years. Farmers face a difficult choice of submitting to working for less, or spending more by planting more acreage even though the Canadian government has just raised the price of fuel further cutting into practical solutions.

At one time, one could believe that governmental leaders were at least trying to help the citizens have a better life, but it is becoming increasingly difficult as we see policies aimed directly to the detriment of the citizens. Wind power, solar power, cutting agricultural productivity, limiting energy choices, do we really have to put up with leaders to seem bend on policies of de-civilization? Must we boldly march backwards into the fifteenth century?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-green-vision-finds-latest-foe-in-dutch-farmers-angered-by-greenhouse-gas-targets-11659690358?page=1

One of the great lessons of the recent pandemic, was the realization that the average American can be as cowed by the authorities as anyone else in the world. The image of the rugged, individualistic American has been severely damaged, and it shall be difficult to regain. It appears that most Americans are as sheep like as the typical Europeans who have left their individual sense of worth in the hands of the bureaucracy generations ago in exchange for the welfare state.

I fully realize that Covid was a new virus and that consequently, there were destined to be many errors in attacking it. That is to be expected and anyone who expects politicians, scientists, doctors, other self-proclaimed experts to be on target with every decision is foolish; we are all human and subject to pressures, politics and pre-conceived notions as we move through the challenges of life. But we should be able to expect those who are in positions of power to act in a relatively rational manner. Remember the Governor who decreed that consumers could purchase certain products at a store but not others? Did she have insight that Covid was attracted to certain products or activities than others? What about another Governor who distained the emergency services provided by the Federal government because he did not want to give credit to a President he disliked? How does that square with the deaths of thousands due to his decision? The list goes on and on, especially of politicians who made medical and policy decisions for which they had little if any training.

Perhaps the single individual who did more to destroy that iconic image more than anyone was Dr. Anthony Fauci. As the pandemic went on, he spoke increasingly Ex-Cathedra finally stating that “If you attack me, you attack science.”  The problem was that his version of “science” had little in common with traditional science. Clink the link below for a review of the five mistakes Dr. Fauci made which brought about terrible results. What makes those errors even worse, is that even today, he holds some of the same views despite the proven costliness of those policies. As time goes on, those who were pushed out of the decision-making process because they dared to disagree with him and his policies are being seen in a new light, for they represented “science” as we traditionally think of it as a realm of questioning as opposed to an area of dogma.

Perhaps, just perhaps, more Americans will be a bit more skeptical next time and so easily bullied into giving up so much freedom to self-proclaimed “experts.”

https://nypost.com/2022/07/23/dr-anthony-faucis-5-disastrous-covid-mistakes/