Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Much Sorry with Delays
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Wednesday, March 16. 2022

Wednesday morning links

Holy cow: Is Congress about to make Daylight Saving Time permanent?


  Even ‘EV’ Elon Musk mocks Biden’s ‘green’ hucksters


 No Amount Of Incremental Wind And Solar Power Can Ever Provide Energy Independence


 San Francisco is now boycotting most of the United States


Powerline:  I can’t tell if this is for real or not. 


 Evidence of Systemic Racism in NYPD


 Privilege-Checking in a World on Fire


 'Cuomo-W. Trump-L.': How CNN's Jeff Zucker and His Cronies Manipulated the News


 Ukraine and Russia Are Not Actually About Us


Russia and the old World Order 

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:15 | Comments (17) | Trackbacks (0)

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" San Francisco is now boycotting most of the United States"
They all seems to be weird and crazy so let them suffer their own consequences.
#1 JC on 2022-03-16 09:26 (Reply)
This. I get the feeling that San Andreas will be dialing in another house call soon.
#1.1 Maniac on 2022-03-16 10:12 (Reply)
re Holy cow: Is Congress about to make Daylight Saving Time permanent?

Why stop there?

Why not move the clocks up an additional hour and have TWO hours of extra daylight in the evening?

I don't care what they do.

It's all a shell game, what Congress does best.
#2 feeblemind on 2022-03-16 09:27 (Reply)
I would be happy to settle on either time and just stay there. Long summer evenings are nice, but kids walking to school in the dark sucks.
#3 Assistant Village Idiot on 2022-03-16 10:31 (Reply)
Re: No Amount Of Incremental Wind And Solar Power Can Ever Provide Energy Independence

From the article, a quotation from the UK think tank, Carbon Tracker:
QUOTE:
“… Instead, Europe could rapidly reduce its reliance on Russian gas (and fossil fuels more broadly) by accelerating the implementation of . . . investments in renewable energy technologies as well as focusing on energy efficiency measures.”

Exactly how are batteries and solar panels “renewable?”
#4 mudbug on 2022-03-16 10:40 (Reply)
In a British article elsewhere, I read the following wonderfully sarcastic line:

"Well, we can always rely on the surge capacity of wind and solar when we need it. Oh wait..."
#4.1 JJM on 2022-03-16 10:49 (Reply)
There have been some great columns on calculating the battery capacity required to keep electricity flowing uninterrupted. They're quite sobering and worth reading (https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/search?q=batteries).
#4.1.1 mudbug on 2022-03-16 11:53 (Reply)
Although it looks like Texas actually scores a trifecta here, I'm not sure what we're actually getting painted with. According to this article, Texas is guilty of having anti-rainbow alphabet laws, but - I'm not too sure what this might be, since Texas has long had quite an active and vocal rainbow community, and Houston has been named as America's Most Diverse city. I can only be grateful that, as a consequence of this shunning, we won't have to scrape and bleach our sidewalks on a regular basis. Long may it continue!
#5 Aggie on 2022-03-16 10:42 (Reply)
San Francisco - Meh. Just start locating bureaucrat conferences in states they're boycotting. They'll eventually come around.

Real estate ad - I read that the other day. Wasn't sure it was real. Second half was very insulting.

DST - Pick one. Stop changing the clocks. That's what is more dangerous and just costly all around.

CNN - I've been genuinely shocked at how many people watch CNN. They're ratings are so low, I didn't know who was actually tuning in. But a lot of people I know do, and not surprisingly, they are some of the most mis-informed, yet obstinate people I know. It challenges friendships.
#6 DrTorch (Link) on 2022-03-16 10:44 (Reply)
Commercial wind and solar power is unsustainable. It depends on and only exists thanks to cheap fossil fuel. If anything it is exactly the opposite of what we should do if you believe burning fossil fuel is bad. But it gets worse. There are simply not enough raw material to build the batteries that would be required to allow wind and solar to provide even a simple 50% of our energy needs. And then there is the cost of those batteries which incredible would exceed the cost of the wind and solar generation facilities. This meme of wind and solar is a Potemkin power source whose only purpose is to make some billionaires into multi-billionaires at the expense of the middle class and the poor. It is a scam, it has always been a scam. If politicians were not corrupt it could not exist, but our politicians ARE corrupt and wind and solar is still pushed as viable. It isn't and if we go done this road it will destroy our economy.
#7 OneGuy on 2022-03-16 11:15 (Reply)
I am living in Arizona. Arizona does not change times when daylight savings times change. Zero negative effects. Zero understand why changing the clock is necessary. It may have been necessary 200 year ago not today. End it.
#8 JustMe on 2022-03-16 11:22 (Reply)
I agree there is zero effect by losing or gaining one hour. I laugh when people say the time change is getting to them. Jet lag from one hour? Not possible.

But if this passes the House, then each state is likely to pass the same legislation. Then AZ would be an hour behind all year because you are on Standard time. That would be odd.

I'm all for adjusting the clocks to have maximum sunlight after regular work hours. My job supports employees who, for reasons I'll never understand, prefer to wait until 8:30 or 9:00 am to start the day.

If it were up to me, I would set clocks to have it be 10:00 pm at sunset on the summer solstice and leave it at that.
#8.1 jack walter on 2022-03-17 07:33 (Reply)
Can the U.S. economy survive high gas prices? It will increase the cost of everything and may reduce us to a 3rd world status. In this argument people like to point to Sweden or Denmark where their left leaning governments have hiked gas prices into the $7 a gallon range. There is simply no comparison. The U.S. is about 1000 times bigger than Denmark and many of our products have to travel 3000 miles in an 18 wheeler to get to the consumer. In Denmark that distance is closer to 100 yards. In one month I will travel 1000 miles for my 6 month doctors appointments. Then I will spend the next 3-4 months pulling a travel trailer around the West U.S. To do that in Denmark I would have to drive in circles for three months. The U.S. could not survive if gas prices were so high that everyone including 18 wheelers had to stay parked. That is our future under the thumb of the left.
#9 OneGuy on 2022-03-16 11:30 (Reply)
Wind and solar can't provide you with all the electricity you want, but it can provide you with all the electricity you need. I'd stock up on candles.
#10 Jerryskids on 2022-03-16 14:51 (Reply)
The Consumer Price Index for durable goods spiked by 18.7% in February

https://wolfstreet.com/2022/03/10/whoosh-dollars-purchasing-power-plunges-in-february-inflation-spreads-across-services-fed-still-pours-fuel-on-it/
#11 feeblemind on 2022-03-16 14:52 (Reply)
All of this vitriol toward solar and wind sounds more like Paul Ehrlich fatalism rather than rational analysis.

Yes, there are currently problems with solar energy. However, there are potential solutions.

"Batteries". Not all storage has to be with voltaic piles. There are other concepts that are being implemented for electrical storage and release. Pumped storage hydropower is a simple concept. It has geological limitations, but that just means it favors some places over others. Reversible solid oxide fuel cells are another potential solution. And there are more.

Recycling of spent solar cells is a bigger concern to me, but I think there is a plausible approach to this.

These can work for wind too. My bigger concern for wind is that I don't think full life cycle costs (maintenance and disposal) are factored in, although allegedly this firm does just that: https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-levelized-cost-of-storage-and-levelized-cost-of-hydrogen/

I'm happy to see affordable alternative energy sources come on board. And I'm happy to see EVs get popular. I don't want to see them subsidized, as that makes the true cost harder to recognize, and has been a huge opportunity for graft and fraud. And while the GHG contribution toward AGW is not supported by scientific studies, and frankly is highly unlikely, there is no reason to downplay potential sources for cheaper energy.

Cheap energy is a requirement for a thriving civilization, for developing innovations, and it makes liberty more attainable and enjoyable.
#12 DrTorch (Link) on 2022-03-16 15:19 (Reply)
So I'm wondering if solar and wind is so good why are their trillions in subsidies? I have a friend who owns a gas station and he tells me he gets no subsidy But Solar and wind cannot seem to even get installed without a subsidy and then it requires a subsidy for it's lifetime. Why is that?

As for EV's If you go to most EV charging stations you will discover that they have a diesel generator to power it. Is diesel still considered a fossil fuel? Also the federal government is going to spend untold billions putting in charging stations on public highways. Why? Did they spend any money putting in gas stations?

Another question. If I'm driving an EV from LA to NY City do I have to stop every 200 or so miles? And if I find a charging station is it going to charge in a couple minutes? a half hour? How long do I sit there?

I saw a picture the other day of thousands of EVs in France I think that were rusting away on a lot because they can't sell them. They are used EVs whose batteries have gone bad and no one wants to buy them and spend $16000 for new batteries.

Is there enough lithium in the world to actually replace just the cars in America???
#13 George on 2022-03-16 23:59 (Reply)

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