Archive for 2022

WHAT’S PLANNED FOR US: South Africans left in the dark after grid collapse. For greens this isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. “This didn’t need to happen. South Africa has always relied primarily on coal-fired power plants because the country sits on rich deposits of coal. But their leaders have followed the same trends we’re seeing in other developed nations around the world, growing ‘squeamish’ about using coal and looking to set up more solar and wind energy farms. Maintenance of some of the coal plants has been neglected because they anticipated the eventual closure of those facilities. Some of them have gone offline.”

You know who’s not squeamish about coal? China.

Plus: “But don’t be fooled into thinking this is just an African problem or a European problem. The blackouts have already begun in the United States.”

IT’S A SHOW TRIAL, BUT THE SHOW HAS LOUSY WRITERS AND CHEAP PRODUCTION VALUES: Byron York: The Jan. 6 committee charade. “This is very serious, Cheney said, but I won’t tell you anything else. In what way is that the purpose of a congressional investigating committee?”

Plus: “The process a committee observes in its investigations means something. When a committee throws an established process out the window, that means something, too. And that is what the Jan. 6 committee has done. It’s a shame there is no opposition party voice inside the committee to let the public know what’s going on.”

Well, Pelosi made sure of that. But it’s also why the committee is a joke — worse, it’s political show trial — and thus Americans have tuned it out. You can now identify the useful idiots by the people who take it at all seriously.

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: More Pain at the Pump: California Gas Tax Increase Goes into Effect.

According to AAA gas price averages, the average price of gas for July 1 is $4.842 per gallon. In California, it’s at $6.270, several more cents higher than the next highest, which is Hawaii, at $5.612.

NBC Bay Area said that the annual gas tax in California, which is among the highest at 51 cents a gallon, is to pay for infrastructure projects:

The state uses the gas tax to fund different highway and road projects. Proponents argued keeping the increase, so, those projects can continue.

Some economists said the increase comes at a bad time. 

“So, the problem isn’t that the gas tax is itself an overwhelming indignity, it’s that it comes on top of a whole series of indignities. There are a whole bunch of problems with the economy,” said Robert Chapman Wood, SJSU Global Economics Professor.

What the report doesn’t mention, though, is that the pain is the point. In April, a report from the Urban Center offered, “To Ease Pain at the Pump, Help People Avoid the Pump.”

Sure enough, one bullet point reads: “Gas consumption is bad for the climate. Driving should be discouraged, not subsidized. One-fifth of global carbon dioxide omissions [sic] come from transportation, most of it from road vehicles.”

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) blamed Democrats in California running for Congress, noting that Assembly members Rudy Salas and Adam Gray had the chance to suspend the gas tax but were among those who voted against it. And while Jay Chen claims to be “committed to lowering costs for working Americans,” he hasn’t spoken out against the gas tax increase.

“Families are struggling to keep up with record-high gas prices and California Democrats are making it even worse,” said CLF Press Secretary Cally Perkins. “Californians have the highest gas prices in the nation and have only Democrats to blame for it.”

Why, it’s as if “Elitist environmentalists hate the working class” or something.

FROM CELIA HAYES: Lone Star Sons.  #CommissionEarned

 


The time – 1842
The place – the Republic of Texas, a place threatened and besieged on all frontiers!
Jim Reade lay on his back in the desert dust, incuriously seeing that ominous shadow circle, lower and lower until every finger-like dark feather became distinct against the burning sky . . . He hurt in every bone, from his head to his fingertips, and all the way to his booted toes. . .the sun had blazed on his exposed face and hands for many hours, and there was a mass of congealed blood which had oozed from his forehead, running back into his sweat-matted hair.
Jim Reade, a volunteer Texas Ranger, is the sole survivor of an ambush in the contested Nueces Strip. Rescued by Indian scout, Toby Shaw, the two young men join forces in pursuit of a mysterious wagon carrying a treasure in silver and gold – a treasure with a curse upon it!
Sworn blood-brothers, Jim and Toby meet with other challenges and mysteries, including a trove of documents sought after by spies of three nations, a girl vanished in the midst of a vicious feud between two families, a den of murderous robbers on the Opelousas Trace … and a tiny baby left an orphan in the desert!
Lone Star Sons – the classic Wild West rides again, in this collection of adventures intended for younger readers by the author of the Adelsverein Trilogy.

JIMMY CARTER WAS A HOT MESS; THE BIDEN JUNTA ACTIVELY WANTS TO DESTROY US: When Joey Met Jimmy.

THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY: TANSTAAFL DAY 1- In Which The Writer Tries to Fund the Blog.

I’ve been writing this blog for about 15 years.  My readers and my family finally convinced me to do a fundraiser to fund the blog.  (Unlike the one in which my readers and friends pulled my behind out of a trap.)  We are not in trouble, this is simply a fundraiser to make it easier for me to blog and write fiction, and not be permanently tired.