Archive for 2023
March 24, 2023
FAILING ECON 101: California Senate approves first-of-its-kind ‘price gouging’ bill.
The bill would authorize the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to set a maximum gross gasoline refining margin — and then establish a penalty for any California-based refineries that exceed that margin. The Commission would be required, however, to consider a refiner’s request for an exemption from that maximum margin.
In addition to setting these restrictions, the legislation would require that all penalties collected be deposited into a “Price Gouging Penalty Fund” in the State Treasury.
The bill would also establish the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight within the Commission — operating independently of the Commission authority and providing guidance to the governor on issues related to transportation fuel pricing and decarbonization.
High margins incentivize the increased production needed to bring down prices — and reduce margins.
But California isn’t interested in any of that, just in penalizing oil companies and creating a new slush fund. That part about the commission having to “consider a refiner’s request for an exemption” is a nice way of saying “graft.”
MORE ON STANFORD’S ADMINISTRATION AND ITS DEGENERACY: Stanford’s War Against Its Own Students.
The street of Greek houses called The Row—which once served as the center of social life on campus—is now relatively quiet on Friday and Saturday nights, students and alumni told me. Students drink heavily in their dorm rooms, throwing down shots to get wasted quickly while staying out of view, they said.
“The university basically doesn’t have trust in the kids,” Selvik said. “They treat them like juveniles, they pad all these layers of bureaucracy on top of it, then it becomes this whole bureaucratic process just to be able to have a party.
“It’s just completely, utterly shocking to alums. We can’t wrap our heads around it at all.” . . .
Paulmeier and other students and alumni told me they’re not asking for Stanford to make it easier for students to cheat, or worse, cause harm to others. All they want is for students to have the chance to make mistakes and learn from them—and sure, allow them to let loose a bit in the process.
“I mean, it’s college, for God’s sake,” Paulmeier said.
Paulmeier said he came to Stanford because he “wanted to be someone who could help change the world, who could help my area become better, and to help kids who were like me.”
But now, as he walks across the more than 8,000 acres of manicured lawns and Romanesque sandstone buildings that comprise the idyllic campus, he questions whether Stanford really is the embodiment of what he always thought was the American dream.
“It’s unethical to base your kid’s life on getting into places like this because at the end of the day, they don’t really care about your kid,” he said. “They never did.”
Alumni, don’t donate to Stanford. Kids, don’t go to Stanford. Parents, don’t send your kids to Stanford.
THIS GOVERNMENT-CREATED CRISIS BROUGHT TO YOU COURTESY OF THE GOVERNMENT’S SOLUTION TO THE LAST GOVERNMENT-CREATED CRISIS: The real cause of the banking crisis: overstimulus in pandemic relief.
THE STANFORD LAW SAGA CONTINUES: Dean Martinez’s 10-Page Letter To The Stanford Community About The Disruption Of Judge Duncan’s Speech.
Her problem is that the alumni are pissed, and the students are out of control. But in a year or two the students will be gone, and the alumni will still be pissed.
March 23, 2023
OPEN THREAD: Make me proud.
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! Watch: TikTok CEO Refuses to Answer Questions About China’s Uyghur Genocide.
RAVING AND DROOLING: Roger Waters Comes Across As Antisemitic As Ever in Interview With Der Spiegel.
BACK TO THE FUTURE! Russia’s Latest Battlefield Antiques and the New, New World Order. “The establishment of a new New World Order races along as some of Russia’s oldest tanks creak their way towards battlefields in Ukraine. Making laws or sausages has nothing on how messily history is made, so join with me as I show you how two seemingly unrelated stories are reshaping the world.”
DOJ WATCHDOG WANTS MORE TEETH: Department of Justice Inspector-General Michael Horowitz is asking Congress to give him authority to investigate professional misconduct by DOJ lawyers, including federal prosecutors. House leaders have favored such a move for a long time, but not the Senate. Curious, very curious.
JON GABRIEL: Julie Su put California’s economy in chaos. And Biden wants her as Labor secretary?
Serving in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet, Su allowed more than $11 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic.
“There is no sugarcoating the reality,” Su said when announcing the massive scam in 2021. “California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation.”
As Labor secretary, she would oversee the nation’s unemployment insurance program. Over the COVID-19 era, that agency pumped $888 billion into job relief programs.
About one-eighth of that total was spent in California.
She supported a law that hurt many industries
Worse still, Su supported passage of California’s Assembly Bill 5, a law that essentially abolished independent contractors in the state as a shot at tech companies such as Uber and Lyft.
A court affirmed tech companies being able to exempt themselves via the ballot this week, and other politically powerful groups like doctors and lawyers were able to score themselves exemptions. (Even freelance journalists had to lobby to get themselves exempted from the law.)
AB 5 has wrecked California’s trucking industry, and the industry is currently mired in a legal fight while it’s already exacerbating the nation’s supply-chain woes.
Biden sought to bring AB 5 to the nation with the PRO Act last Congress. Since that stalled, the president is likely to push Su to execute it via administrative action.
Flashback: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.
SPACE PROGRESSES, FAILURE BY FAILURE: Relativity Space’s 3D-printed rocket launches, fails to reach orbit.
OF COURSE IT DOES: The Crusade Against ‘Malinformation’ Explicitly Targets Inconvenient Truths.
We only saw “fact checkers” appear when the truth started getting out.
Related: This Just In: Conspiracy Theorists Not Quite as Kooky as Previously Reported.
ICYMI: AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Democrats Vow To Arrest As Many Political Opponents As It Takes To Defeat Fascism.
PRICEY MUSCLE: Dodge’s Big Bad Demon Starts at over $100,000 after Gas-Guzzler Tax.
On the other hand, that works out to about $100 per horsepower.
I’M NOT SAYING IT’S ALIENS…: The Mystery of Alleged Alien Object ‘Oumuamua Has Been Solved, Scientists Say. “A pair of scientists have presented a robust natural explanation that accounts for ‘Oumuamua’s strangest behaviors, including its puzzling speed boost as it hurtled through the solar system. The new research suggests that the object’s many years in interstellar space left it with an abundance of molecular hydrogen, which was transformed into gas in the presence of the Sun.”
THAT’S ONE OF THE NICER THINGS COMMUNISTS DO: Communist Front Group Organized Shout-Down of Conservative Judge at Stanford.
BE PREPARED: KitchenAid Classic Multifunction Can Opener/Bottle Opener. #CommissionEarned
A FILM LADD REVIEW: What’s with all these YouTube critics giving Picard Season 3 a tongue-bath? Are lives being threatened?
I gave Picard a second chance based on a couple of the reviews Ladd mentioned, and was immediately sorry that I had.
MEH, JUST ANOTHER DAY DOWNUNDER: Australian woman finds venomous snake lounging in her bed.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Gay Dating App Grindr Threatens to Out GOP Lawmakers, but There’s Just One Problem…
Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.