Random Thoughts #32

Random musings

My NextDoor account was suspended. I guess they want more queries about the best plumber than one about the best government.

I don’t understand the attraction of plug-in hybrids. You get only about 30 miles as an EV. I guess that might do for a short daily commute. You have both the gas engine and an electric motor with battery. Doesn’t this just make the vehicle heavier, more complicated and more expensive to maintain and fix? So wouldn’t you get a better vehicle if you eliminate either the EV or the gas part? 

Isn’t it interesting that many of those on the left feigning outrage over Alito’s upside down American flag are the same ones who have professed hate for the flag? I hear no condemnation from the same whiners on the left over those who say that the flag is racist and a symbol of hate.

I must admit there are times in which I am tempted to turn my American flag postage stamps upside down.

So why is Biden trying to tell the Israelis how to fight their war? Who anointed him in the first place?

Surveys show that Trump’s conviction did not move the polls and that he and Biden remain tied. That Biden is actually tied shows what a terrible candidate is Donald Trump. A cardboard cutout would be up by 20 points.

This may be one of the few elections where the choice of vice president may actually matter. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris for president. Does anyone think that Biden will be able to last 4 more years if reelected? I wonder if the dems will change VPs due to the thought of the voters not voting for Biden because of a President Harris. 

I just returned from a camping trip to Florida towing my fifth wheel behind my diesel pickup. For the first time I saw a number of EVs on the highway with out of state tags. In Florida EVs abound, just like in west Knoxville. My daughter who lives in northern Virginia said that there EVs are as plentiful as rabbits. So I wonder if all the EVs have had a noticeable impact on energy consumption and energy prices. Worldwide fossil fuel energy consumption continues to rise as developing countries increase their consumption. Recall the president of an African country in response to the Paris Accord said that no country ever emerged from poverty using expensive energy. Well fossil fuel consumption is higher now than before the Paris Accord was signed.

Going to Florida we saw two sites where the landscape was covered by solar panels. This strikes me as an incredibly wasteful use of resources. This is not putting these panels in a desert but on arable land. I guess it is because of all the Federal handouts subsidizing solar. It seems to me that if the government gives incentives it should heavily subsidize solar for the home while funding nuclear power if it wants to force a movement away from fossil, rather than using inefficient solar and wind to generate power for everyone.

The results in the European elections should send a warning to the greenies in this country – but they are tone deaf. The growth of the European right coupled with the loss of seats on the left are due to the consequences of aggressively going green. The shutting down of nuclear plants and coal plants made the situation worse. The higher costs of energy are being painfully felt forcing a slowdown in the transition to a carbon free environment. This is because of the stupidity of the left. Why not say how much carbon is a good thing rather than trying to eliminate it totally? I am reminded of the comments of a friend with a $100,000 stereo system who said that for $20,000 you could capture 95% of the sound. But you have to spend an additional $20,000 for every one percent gain but you can never capture 100%. The same is true for carbon emissions.

The green left is overplaying its hand. Yes, they have gotten the endorsements of western governments. But most of us in opposition are more opposed to the heavy handed government edicts than to the idea of green energy (if market driven).

Trump has proposed to make tips nontaxable. If he wants a winning issue he should take my recommendation to make the salaries of all active duty military tax exempt.

Benny Gantz has quit Netanyahu’s cabinet with the statement that “Fateful strategic decisions are stuck due to hesitancy and procrastination out of political considerations.” Sounds like Biden and Blinken’s nosing into Israel’s business has produced a fallout where military decisions are being trumped by political ones. Sounds like Viet Nam.

How do the panhandlers get to their street corners?

I don’t give to able bodied beggars. With all the “now hiring” signs out there, economics tells us that the panhandlers must be making more by begging than by getting a job.

I will occasionally give to disabled panhandlers and always if they have a dog.

Lastly, did you see where the left wing media is trashing Byron Donalds? They already hate him because he is a nonapologetic black conservative and are now contending that he said that Jim Crow was a good thing for black families. Of course Donalds said no such thing but the media knows that the vast majority of the public are intellectually lazy and will not read what Donalds actually said. He stated the well known fact that there were more nuclear families and children born into them prior to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society not that Jim Crow was good for black families.  But as Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels once said that if you tell a lie enough times, it will become the truth.