William – Page 35 – Really Right

Of Conservatives, Dreams, and Recalls

Folks why is the definition of insanity “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” hold true in every area of life except politics? Somehow politicians, political consultants, and political activists think they are exempt from the stock definition of insanity. It’s not just an ideological thing either.

On the Left you have people proclaiming that the only thing wrong with socialism or communism is that the right people (i.e. them) just haven’t tried it yet. Democrats tell the same lies decade after decade to black people to get their votes and do nothing for them. In fact, statistically blacks are worse off in Democrat cities than anywhere else.

Conservatives (or those that self-identify as such) keep going to the same playbook as Ronald Reagan used in the 1980’s. We still hear them opining about less government, less regulations, lower taxes, etc. Once elected, these folks sure don’t vote like they campaign. We have a Republican controlled Senate and White House and what do we get? Why more spending and debt than at any time in the history of the planet and a national government that micromanages people and taxes them like crazy; a practice compounded by the States, especially for those living in the Coastal regions.

In this era of hypocrisy, mixed messages, and polarity of political opinion, comes the latest idea for tilting at windmills; no not impeaching Donald Trump, why lets recall California’s Governor Gavin Newsom.

Folks this idea is just dumb as dirt and twice as dangerous. Newsom is doing just what he promised and a tiny group of people are mad at him. Folks he was elected fair and square and as rare as it is in this state, he even beat a Republican for the privilege to be our Governor. Now two years into his first term they want to recall him? I don’t get it.

Let’s suppose supporters collect the two million signatures needed for the Recall—which I don’t think they can do—but then what? Back when Pete Wilson was running for Governor, it cost him 50 million dollars to win. That was almost 20 years ago. Folks these people may be mad but they don’t have a dime to their names. Sorry but the mantra “… if you build it, they will come …” only works in a movie about dreams.

Let’s summarize; Recall supporters have no money to pay people to collect signatures to recall the Governor, they have no money to run a campaign to recall said Governor, and lastly, they have nobody to put in his place if Newsom is recalled. Do you think anybody better than Newsom will sit in the Governor’s office if he is successfully recalled? Just because the lights are going out again doesn’t mean we need relive the Gray Davis recall.

But this idea is worse than it appears. Newsom harbors plans to run for President in 2024. Should he survive a recall attempt, it will embolden him and his policies, and propel him to frontrunner status in the Democrat field. By participating in the recall, Conservatives may very well insure that Newsom will be our next President.

This recall is the same drill run by folks like Karen England following the overthrow of Prop 8 and the passage of the “bathroom bill.” Such actions actually make us worse off and are an embarrassment. Worse yet, they are unbiblical. Scripture commands us to count the cost before starting something and have the resources available to see it thru before undertaking a venture. Why does this never apply to anything political? Folks, the bad news for many of you is that it is God’s will that Gavin Newsom is our governor just as it is God’s will that Donald Trump is our President. I have my opinions about why each man is currently in office and what it means but it’s not relevant to the topic at hand.

This recall cannot succeed and will make things worse for us. It also will give ammo to the other side so they can gerrymander the census lines just enough to nullify Conservative voters even more.

Folks, if you are looking for salvation via politics, you will never find it. Learn to governor your family and influence your community. Master these first and then look to changing the wider world. Getting the right guy in the State House, the White House, or the Supreme Court is not going to fix what really ails us. Elections have consequences but God controls that outcome too.

Paradise: Lies and Statistics

The California State Auditor has rested from her labors filtering names for the citizen’s committee on redistricting long enough to release a report on the financial health of California’s cities. The quote on “lies, damn lies, and statistics” comes to mind when you read about Paradise, California being listed at moderate financial risk. Gee, maybe you could put an asterisk on that or something. Last we checked, those folks got their ashes kicked by a small conflagration and then PG&E & their insurance carriers piled on.

Paradise reported at moderate financial risk

If you want a preview of coming attractions, start clicking on the filters on the left side of the interactive map page; especially, Future Pension Costs. Remember that this data is several years old, and the trend is not getting better.

Future Pension Costs –San Francisco Bay Area

I’m so glad that the politicians made sure government employees are in the front of the line when creditors line-up to claim their share of the carcass when all this goes south. Meanwhile, mostly empty lifeboats are departing daily for Texas and other locations.

Now That Zombie Apocalypse Drill is Over

Now that the evil winds have died down–for now–and electrical service is slowly being restored, we here in the socialist mecca of Venezuela, oops I mean California, have contained the Zombie outbreak…this time. Consider this a practice run for “the big one.” We, living here in the SMUD service area, did experience 48–mostly arson fires–on the first day of the PG&E blackout but I’m sure it’s just coincidence.

In light of the recent fright that Northern Californians experienced from the PG&E power outages, we here at Really Right noticed that PG&E was experiencing a public relations nightmare over this service interruption. Their local offices were egged, their vehicles were shot, and other acts of vandalism occurred as well. As a result, we felt that PG&E needs to undertake a “feel good” campaign to win back the hearts of customers. In a spirit of sympathy for both PG&E and their customers, we decided to screen potential candidates as the new spokesman for the embattled company.

Our first thought was Chuck Norris. Chuck is well known as a man’s man. He doesn’t seem to be gainfully employed any more, at least not in front of the camera so we thought a financially struggling company could afford him. However, we decided that Chuck is not right for a California based company; especially, one headquartered in San Francisco. Chuck is a manly conservative and isn’t compatible with a company that poured ratepayer money into opposing Proposition 8. Why an electric utility has any business in taking sides on whether marriage should be between one man and one woman is just proof that their management sucks. Also, having Chuck Norris associated with this utility has a bigger problem. You see, nobody turns the lights out on Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris puts their lights out.

Nobody turns out the lights on Chuck Norris

Michael Myers was another thought. What is October without Mike? The State is experiencing a lot of tension due to the fright given to them by PG&E and we are busily prepping for Halloween anyway. Baby Boomers, especially those in office, can really relate to Michael. When they were first dating in junior high, going to one of his movies was a surefire way to get a girl to curl-up in their arms. Oh, what fond memories. Mike has California roots being a well-known commodity in Hollywood. Mike is also known to avoid firearms and favors knives for his “wet work“. Given that our current Governor thinks that law abiding people shouldn’t be allowed firearms, this policy might seem to favor a guy like Michael Myers. However, Mike is known as the strong, silent type and like Chuck Norris, prefers to let his hands do the talking. He is really light on dialogue in his movies and that is a problem when you need a guy for doing voiceovers for commercials.

Our third candidate, Freddy Kruger, is strong in areas where Mike Myers is weak. Freddy has a distinctive voice that you never really forget. Freddy also is best known as a guy that reminds you to keep your lights on at night. In fact, Freddy has a following that never wants the lights to go off again. Freddy, unlike Myers, never wears a mask. As a disabled individual, Freddy has really used his disability to make a name for himself. The fact that Freddy is a grossly disfigured burn victim that is thriving amongst ordinary people is inspiring. You never know where he will pop-up next. This fact causes people to pay attention whenever he is on your television. Freddy could be a role model for what PG&E could become. Both have survived a horrible fire and PG&E is learning to overcome adversity and begin life anew. Freddy has been there and done that.

Freddy makes you want to keep the lights on

Some may wonder why I made the connection between Michael, Freddy, and PG&E. And for that, we circle back once again to San Francisco. The progressive leadership in San Francisco wants to dismember parts of PG&E. In some Frankenstein-like way, they want to create their own utility, but unlike a real utility, this one only owns transmission lines and no power generating facilities. I guess that would make it a very “green” utility with no carbon footprint other than that of an occasional fire. PG&E also provides natural gas service to “The City” but no word on who gets that slice of the company.

For those of us living in the real world, this idea makes absolutely no sense; especially, in that city. As the Sith Lord’s father liked to point out, nobody knows what is really under that city. Parts of their infrastructure date back to the Gold Rush era and there are no maps of what lies below the streets of San Francisco. Then there are the parts that survived the 1906 quake which again are not recorded but likely used in some spots. Thus San Francisco has many ancient components of their infrastructure that are in use way beyond their designed life. Taking on this liability is insane on the face of it. The city fathers may very well get their wish and live to regret it as “fire sale” can be defined in more than one sense.

Anyway, both PG&E and Freddy Kruger are associated with fright, fires, and dismemberment. It’s a match made in times of adversity, but it just might work. This association will inspire ratepayers to keep the lights on at any price as the alternative is too frightening. We here at Really Right think they ought to take a stab at it.

Joe Biden’s Political Aspirations Are Over

Yesterday, the Washington Examiner simultaneously ended Joe Biden’s flailing political campaign for President not just for 2020 but forever and they also ended the farce of impeaching President Trump.

The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA whistleblower had a “professional” tie is Joe Biden, according to intelligence officers and former White House officials.

Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only “in the executive branch.” The Washington Examiner has established that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National Security Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New York Times reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the newspaper added that he “was detailed to the National Security Council at one point.”

Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general, told members of Congress that the whistleblower had a “professional tie” to a 2020 Democratic candidate. He had written earlier that while the whistleblower’s complaint was credible, he had shown “some indicia of an arguable political bias … in favor of a rival political candidate.”

A retired CIA officer told the Washington Examiner, “From everything we know about the whistleblower and his work in the executive branch then, there is absolutely no doubt he would have been working with Biden when he was vice president.”

As an experienced CIA official on the NSC with the deep knowledge of Ukraine that he demonstrated in his complaint, it is probable that the whistleblower briefed Biden and likely that he accompanied him on Air Force Two during at least one of the six visits the 2020 candidate made to the country.
Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he was vice president, officials reveal

But folks it’s even worse than this. Did you know that the Ukraine energy company in question paid Joe Biden $900,000?

As the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, it seems pretty clear that he was there selling access. That’s the allegation. It’s a question that hasn’t gone away, and one that has irritated Joe Biden to no end. And now we’re hearing that Joe Biden was also paid $900,000 which was part of his lobbying fee on behalf of Burisma. The former vice president has repeatedly said that he and his son never discussed overseas business, despite being pictured in a photograph golfing with two Ukrainian energy executives. They didn’t talk business. Who are you kidding?
Joe AND Hunter Biden Were Both Paid by Burisma

Joe & Hunter Biden with Ukraine energy officials 2014

Rudy Giuliani has alleged that a Ukrainian natural-gas company that employed Joe Biden’s son Hunter also paid the former vice president $900,000 in lobbying fees.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity” Wednesday, President Trump’s personal lawyer cited as evidence claims made by Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s parliament.

“Biden, his son and his brother had a 30-year-long scam to make money, millions, selling his public office,” Giuliani told host Sean Hannity.

Derkach held a press conference earlier Wednesday in Kyiv where he claimed to have documents showing how Burisma Holdings paid Joe Biden the lobbying fees.

Hunter Biden worked for Burisma while his father served as vice president and acted as the point man on US effort to stamp out corruption in Ukraine. Hunter was paid $50,000 a month.

“Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the US-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners,” Derkach told reporters, referring to the investment company the younger Biden founded with Chris Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry.
Giuliani claims Ukrainian company paid Joe Biden $900,000 in lobbying fees

Please note again that this is how people in Washington become multimillionaires on $125K a year salaries. Joe Biden gets a cut for allowing access, his son gets millions of dollars while Joe is Vice President and magically, we have John Kerry’s son involved in this too. Do you see the pattern?

Bill and Hillary Clinton lived off Bill’s $35K a year salary as Arkansas Governor and were flat broke when Bill took office. Now they are worth close to a billion dollars. Similar story with the Obamas. Go back and look at Lyndon Johnson, same song second verse… This has been going on for decades in Washington circles.

Meanwhile, Trump has put his assets in a blind trust and is working for free—he donates his salary to various groups. Unlike the others, Trump is taking a pay cut to be President.

Oh, The New York Post ends the article with a fake news fig leaf for Joe Biden trying to excuse what he did.

Derkach claimed Joe Biden pressured Ukraine in December 2015 to force the resignation of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and dangled $1?billion in loan guarantees as an incentive.

Prosecutors have found no evidence that either Biden did anything wrong, and Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment about details of the alleged documents.

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump and his allies, including Giuliani and Republican members of Congress, have alleged that Joe Biden sought to have Shokin fired because Shokin was investigating Burisma.

The fake news is “Trump and his allies…have alleged…” Yo dudes, Biden admitted it in front of a live audience. I’ve seen the tape and the transcript. Here’s one account of the event.

In his own words, with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden recalled telling Poroshenko.

“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations event, insisting that President Obama was in on the threat.
Joe Biden’s 2020 Ukrainian nightmare

Once and for all, America is saved from this pompous knucklehead ever being in the White House. Joe may be on the campaign trail for a while longer but his end is certain.

Zombie Apocalypse Day 1 Recap

Photo: Auburn, CA 10-09-2019 credit Sacramento Bee

For those of us in the shadow of the State Capitol, it’s just another day. However, if you live elsewhere in the State, things are anything but normal.

Shoot the Messenger

A PG&E employee was driving a truck Tuesday evening in Northern California’s Colusa County – before the electricity cutoffs – when a bullet shattered one of the vehicle’s windows, the California Highway Patrol told The Associated Press. The driver was not hurt, according to the AP.

CHP is investigating the incident, which occurred north of the town of Maxwell as the staffer headed southbound on Interstate 5, according to authorities. A white pickup may have pulled up beside the PG&E truck before the shooting, CHP Officer J. Sherwood told the San Francisco Chronicle.
PG&E pleads for employee safety amid outage; police report gunfire at vehicle

Welcome to Venezuela

More than a million people in California were without electricity Wednesday as the state’s largest utility pulled the plug to prevent a repeat of the past two years when windblown power lines sparked deadly wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes.

The unpopular move that disrupted daily life — prompted by forecasts calling for dry, gusty weather — came after catastrophic fires sent Pacific Gas & Electric Co. into bankruptcy and forced it to take more aggressive steps to prevent blazes.

The drastic measure caused long lines at supermarkets and hardware stores as people rushed to buy ice, coolers, flashlights and batteries across a swath of Northern California. Cars backed up at traffic lights that had gone dark. Schools and universities canceled classes. And many businesses closed.
Lights out: Power cut in California to prevent deadly fires

Why have forest management when you can just pull the plug at random?

“I wish we weren’t in a situation where, in maybe one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world, we are turning power off to large swaths of the population every few weeks,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy program at Stanford University. “But it is better than what we’ve been through, and I very much hope that we get through this fire season without a repeat of 2017 or 2018.”

PG&E declared bankruptcy in January, in part because of potential liabilities from its role in some of the 2017 northern California fires and the 2018 Camp fire that killed a total of 129 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

“Is it a huge inconvenience? Yes. Is it going to be dangerous? Yes,” Wara said. “There are lots of risks on the other side. Someone could die because they have a medical device.

PG&E should have been maintaining and updating its infrastructure before the crisis reached this point, said Mindy Spatt, a spokeswoman for the Utility Reform Network.

“PG&E should be held to higher standards than this,” she said. “No one wants to see another fire like the fires we’ve seen in the past, but we have to remember that the problem that these shutoffs are hopefully going to address are PG&E’s negligence and incompetence, and PG&E’s propensity to ignite fires.”

Now PG&E customers must bear the burden of navigating possibly days without power, with businesses losing money and people in possibly unsafe situations, Spatt said.

“Consumers would rather have their power shut off than have their homes and businesses burnt down, but they would also rather have a utility that didn’t start fires,” Spatt said.
Record power shutoffs in California are set to become the new normal

The shutoffs are part of its wildfire mitigation plan, mandated by the state and agreed to by the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s top power regulator. — Kevin Stark
Why Is This Happening? Answers to Your Questions on the PG&E Shutdown

Folks, when you live in a socialist state, you get socialist utilities too. We keep being told the lie by the ruling class that wind and solar are the way to energy independence so what happens on a sunny, windy day—conditions that we are told are best for energy production—why we cut the power off to people in the state’s flyover country.

But elites take care of their own. Tesla is prominently mentioned in two articles that I saw about the scheduled blackouts yesterday.

One article mentioned that the scheduled outages stopped just short of Tesla’s production facility in the San Jose area and the other was to juice-up before the lights go out.

The electric automaker issued a preemptive over-the-air advisory overnight to many vehicle owners, telling them to charge up ahead of the planned outages, which utility Pacific Gas & Electric began rolling out Wednesday to try to lessen the risk of wildfires.

“A utility company in your area announced they may turn off power in some areas of Northern California beginning October 9 as part of public safety power shut-offs, which may affect power to charging options,” the message read, according to social media posts. “We recommend charging your Tesla to 100% today to ensure your drive remains uninterrupted.”
California’s power outage means problems for electric cars. Tesla says charge up, quick.

So what ever happened to Elon’s promise that his cars could be charged as they were driven by solar cells built into the car? Actually, Toyota was promising something similar a few years ago but I digress…

I still haven’t heard whether Oakland participated in the lights out festivities.

Closing Comments

All of this bowing to the environmentalists goes back to the oil spill in Santa Barbara back in 1969. Up until that happened, nobody cared about the environmentalists. From that point forward, they increasingly gained access to influence public policy in California. Now nobody dares to act without their blessing.

Environmentalists purposely destroyed the logging industry in California and now we have tens of millions of dead and dying trees in our forests and nobody to cut them down. This is why we have decades of fuel gathering on the forest floor.

Dead and diseased trees in California #1

While PG&E did spark some fires, many in our State are the result of arson and nobody has been arrested for most of the manmade forest fires.

Dead and diseased trees in California #2

Any way you slice it, government failure is to blame for the current mess.

How Statewide Rent Control Keeps Poor Folks Poor

As predicted, Governor Newsom signed AB 1482 into law yesterday at a ceremony in Oakland. Any rental properties still standing when PG&E turns the power back on will be subject to this law beginning January first. The fact that this is a huge power grab by state officials and that voters just rejected a similar measure be damned.

Folks, this is just a fancy way to keep poor people poor and enhance the portfolios of the rich. You see, in recent history, the best place to get a return on your investment has been Wall Street. Arguably, the stock market is overvalued and there are some bubbles in various sectors that increase the risk of investing. Now, rich Liberals can invest in corporations that specialize in rent control properties and boutique housing in Oregon and California and get 25 times (not a typo) the return that you can get in a bank savings account, risk free and guaranteed forever. This revenue stream increases each year, plus they get a cost of living increase to keep ahead of inflation as well. This diversifies the savings of the rich and has a better return than traditional “Blue Chip” investments.

Folks when you hear that Warren Buffett gets rich on the backs of the poor, its stuff like this that he uses to gain and keep his wealth. If managed properly, any investment in a rent control scheme will double your money about every decade.

Here’s how Buffett does it:

Once the property needs maintenance, you can increase your wealth even more. You sell the rental property from Corporation A to Corporation B, both of which you own. Corporation B, fixes up the property using a third corporation that you also own to do the capital improvements. Once modernized, you can then increase the rent to current market values and then get new tenants and repeat the cycle.

Since nobody on the low end of the income ladder gets five percent wage increases each year plus a cost of living adjustment, the poor will get even poorer while the rich get richer. As an added bonus, at election time, the rich Liberals will play the class envy card and blame Republicans for the plight of the poor which they engineered.

Zombie Apocalypse Begins Tomorrow

In an historic first, humanity has been given advance warning that the Zombie Apocalypse is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Contrary to earlier reports, the evil corporate entity responsible for the end of life as we know it is not the Umbrella Corporation.

Instead, government officials have announced that the responsible entity is a bankrupt company bent on self-preservation at the expense of humanity and what passes for civilization in this once Golden State. Enter one Pacific Gas and Electric Company. No not the cheesy 1960’s rock band but the once proud public utility.

The spark responsible for the anticipated chaos is the purposeful and simultaneous loss of electrical power in 30 California counties. The affected areas are expected to include Silicon Valley and peace loving Oakland.

Here is the completed list of affected counties:

Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba

Personally, my money is on the Raider’s fans to be the backbone of the lawlessness which will ensue; especially, if the blackouts go into overtime.

If this materializes as promised, look for Silicon Valley folks to transfer critical operations to other states with cheaper and more abundant power and less government red tape.

Oh, and here is a typical newsfeed of the warning being broadcast.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is warning customers that the utility may shut off power to 30 California counties this week because of a potentially widespread wind event.

The potential Public Safety Power Shutoff could impact more than 600,000 customers across Northern and Central California, the utility said Monday night.

The strong and dry wind event, forecast for Wednesday morning through Thursday afternoon, could impact much of PG&E’s service area, which includes northern, coastal and Bay Area counties. The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for midweek.

“If PG&E decides to implement a PSPS, the company expects to begin turning off power for safety early Wednesday morning,” the utility said Monday night.
PG&E: Power could be shut off for 600,000+ customers

If you live in one of these areas stock up on water and shotgun shells today.

Oh to identify the zombies, look for the stranger carrying your neighbor’s television set or dragging his wife down the street towards their gasoline powered vehicles. Zombies don’t drive Tesla’s in PG&E service areas.

Raiders fan rehearsing for Zombie Apocalypse

Stay tuned to this blog for further developments as the situation warrants.

Fear of China Governs American Life

When it comes to business and entertainment, China seems to be dictating American policy. Just as they govern their own nation with fear, American companies are succumbing to fear of the Dragon of the East. When given a choice, Americans are choosing profit over principle every time.

China has made a huge investment in Hollywood over the last several years. As a result, they have actively reshaped the plots and casting of many big budget movies. Sometimes the changes made headlines and other times it hasn’t. One of the earliest changes that I recall was the remake of Red Dawn.

In the original 1984 movie, troops from Cuba and Russia make a surprise attack on the United States and get bogged down in a protracted fight. A group of high school students wage a guerrilla war against the invader’s supply routes.

As Hollywood often does, they remade the movie in 2012. Since the Soviet Union had fallen decades before, they needed a new villain, an aggressor nation with the military might to take on the United States. The logical choice was China. However, a curious thing happened in the midst of post-production. The studio nixed the China thing and made the producers change the aggressor nation to North Korea.

Was China originally the country invading the USA?

Yes, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was originally presented as the invading regime, but after pressure from the PRC government and studio concerns on how it could impact the international box office, the film was digitally altered in post-production to replace all the PRC flags, posters and dialogue with that of North Korea.
From IMDB Red Dawn (2012)

Since then, it has become commonplace to change scripts or edit movies in such a way to get distribution in China. Even Hollywood “tent pole” movies like the Avengers have been altered to make it marketable in China.

Such changes are just the tip of the proverbial spear.

Today, two more news stories about compromising to please China are in the headlines. First up, the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The headline from ultra-rightwing publication Rolling Stone says it all.

The NBA Chooses China’s Money Over Hong Kong’s Human Rights

Daryl Morey did the right thing — at first.

In a Friday night tweet that he has since deleted, the Houston Rockets general manager expressed support for the legions of protesters who have taken to the streets of Hong Kong.

However, the problem for Morey is that the Chinese also love basketball. And thanks surely to the stardom of former Rockets great Yao Ming — now the head of the Chinese Basketball Association — Houston trailed only Golden State in popularity in the nation, per a recent survey. There appears to be too much money to be made in China for the NBA to stand up for human rights.
Yao himself responded to Morey’s tweet with condemnation, calling it “an inappropriate comment related to Hong Kong” and the CBA suspended its “exchanges and cooperation” with the Rockets. Chinese sportswear maker Li-Ning did the same, suspending its association with the team. The Chinese government also weighed in via its consulate, saying that it was “deeply shocked” by the tweet. The Rockets owner, Tilman Fertitta, quickly disowned Morey’s tweet:

Listen….@dmorey does NOT speak for the @HoustonRockets. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the @NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization. @espn https://t.co/yNyQFtwTTi
— Tilman Fertitta (@TilmanJFertitta) October 5, 2019

The Rockets and the NBA could have stood up for Morey, for decency, and for the protesters and their human rights.

The NBA issued a sorry statement, declaring the league realizes that the tweet may have “deeply offended” Chinese fans and that they “have great respect for the history and culture of China,” as if that had anything to do with a bill that could be used to disappear journalists and critics of an autocratic regime. Morey, who The Ringer reports was at one point in jeopardy of losing his job, tweeted his own apology that read like it was dictated by his boss. Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, a co-founder of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, published an open letter on Facebook that referred to protesters as a “separatist movement.” Even James Harden, the Rockets’ star guard, issued a mea culpa for some reason, even though he wasn’t involved.

That last bit of rank submission to an autocratic regime captured the full extent of the NBA’s sellout to China. Several politicians on the left and right, including presidential candidate Julián Castro and Rep. Ben Sasse (R-MO), called out the NBA’s cowardice. Even Rockets fan Ted Cruz took a principled stand:

We’re better than this; human rights shouldn’t be for sale & the NBA shouldn’t be assisting Chinese communist censorship.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 7, 2019

Wow. Folks when Rolling Stone is singing the praises of Ted Cruz, you know that something is seriously wrong.

The next story probably won’t make it to your INBOX but it goes much the same way. Before getting into the particulars here’s a few nuggets of background. eSports is a big thing in a small segment of popular culture. This is where aspiring kids go to make millions of dollars playing video games competitively. A big hub of this activity is South Korea. Blizzard Entertainment was purchased a few years ago by Activision. Blizzard is best known for their World of Warcraft game. Hearthstone is a virtual card game that is modeled after Warcraft type characters.

Blizzard’s Hearthstone

The popular player ended a recent livestream with a call for his country’s liberation in a post-game interview. “Liberate Hong Kong,” Ng Wai said. “Revolution of our age!”

During the Hearthstone Grandmasters stream, the Hearthstone Pro was wearing a mask similar to those used by rioters in Hong Kong.

After the livestream ended, Ng Wai was immediately removed from the game’s Grandmasters rank and the developer is currently withholding his tournament prize money. The player also received a 12-month ban from the game’s professional events. The player will be unable to participate in Hearthstone eSports until October 5th 2020.

Unfortunately, government interference within China is a constant issue for its citizens. Even amongst the horrendous police brutality shown within the Hong Kong riots, the country still finds time for rampant censorship. With some developers being destroyed for slight anti-government inclusions, Blizzard’s huge Chinese presence does need to be protected in a business standpoint. From a moral and ethical standpoint, however, Blizzard is certainly not looking good.
Hearthstone Pro player Chung Blitzchung Ng Wai has been exiled by game developer Blizzard after supporting the Hong Kong riots.

For those of you that self-identify as low information voters, this is why I have problems with the way we conduct business with China. This also should help explain why I support President Trump’s efforts to change our relationship with China. Do I agree with everything Trump does with China? Probably not, but his instinct is correct. America businesses that put profit over principle are behaving shamefully.

Tesla Bad for Environment

It doesn’t take a genius to know that electric vehicles are a scam based on wishful thinking and junk science plus a healthy dose of government intervention to try to manipulate markets to be more favorable to these politically endorsed ideas. If you needed a little more documentation to share with friends to prove the obvious, here are three more articles for your consideration. Oh, if you look them up, there are links in them to even more evidence.

Article One

A Tesla Model 3 is touted as a zero-emissions car by government regulators, but it actually results in more carbon dioxide than a comparable diesel-powered car, according to a recent study.

When the CO2 emissions from battery production is included, electric cars, like Teslas, are “in the best case, slightly higher than those of a diesel engine, and are otherwise much higher,” reads a release from the German think tank IFO.

“It’s better read as a warning that new technologies aren’t a climate-change panacea. Recall the false promises about corn and cellulosic ethanol,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote of the study.

A study released in 2018 also found driving electric cars might come with higher emissions than diesel vehicles, largely because of lithium-ion battery production.
Likewise, a Manhattan Institute study from 2018 also found putting more electric cars on the road would likely increase emissions compared to internal combustion engine vehicles.
Driving A Tesla Results In More CO2 Than A Mercedes Diesel Car, Study Finds

Article Two

A battery pack for a Tesla Model 3 pollutes the climate with 11 to 15 tonnes of CO2. Each battery pack has a lifespan of approximately ten years and total mileage of 94,000, would mean 73 to 98 grams of CO2 per kilometer (116 to 156 grams of CO2 per mile), Buchal said. Add to this the CO2 emissions of the electricity from powerplants that power such vehicles, and the actual Tesla emissions could be between 156 to 180 grams of CO2 per kilometer (249 and 289 grams of CO2 per mile).

German researchers criticized the fact that EU legislation classifies electric cars as zero-emission cars; they call it a deception because electric cars, like the Model 3, with all the factors, included, produce more emissions than diesel vehicles by Mercedes.

They further wrote that the EU target of 59 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2030 is “technically unrealistic.”

The reality is, in addition to the CO2 emissions generated in mining the raw materials for the production of electric vehicles, all EU countries generate significant CO2 emissions from charging the vehicles’ batteries using dirty power plants.

For true emission reductions, researchers concluded the study by saying methane-powered gasoline engines or hydrogen motors could cut CO2 emissions by a third and possibly eliminate the need for diesel motors.
“Methane technology is ideal for the transition from natural gas vehicles with conventional engines to engines that will one day run on methane from CO2-free energy sources. This being the case, the German federal government should treat all technologies equally and promote hydrogen and methane solutions as well.”

So maybe Elon Musk’s plan to save the world with electric cars is the biggest scam of our lifetime…
Electric Car-Owners Shocked: New Study Confirms EVs Considerably Worse For Climate Than Diesel Cars

Article Three

It’s becoming a joke all around the world — the EVs in Australia powered by dirty diesel. But what’s the difference?

Most EVs in Australia are running on fossil fuel — the generators are just hidden behind longer extension cords. (Ones that carry 240,000V). EVs on our grid are running on 80% of fossil fuels every day.

The sign on the charger above says “Nullarbor” — the vast treeless and grid-free center of Australia — but this is actually a test site in Perth (the trees were the giveaway).

The 3,000 kilometer trip across the Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide is such an achievement for an EV that it’s practically a news story each time one makes it.

Electric Car owners carry a chip about not being able to drive across the country as any real car owner could.

So Jon Edwards, a retired engineer from Perth, set up this test site in his backyard. He wanted to know if it could be a realistic stop-gap for our far remote roads.

To me, this looks like a chain of efficiency losses going from diesel to mechanical to electrical to battery to mechanical, but Edwards tested it with ten friend’s cars last December and estimates it works out slightly better on fuel use than just driving a diesel.

The charger is a Tritium Veefil 50kW DC (a big fast one) and took 9 hours to charge all 10 cars and used 108L of fuel. Good for fuel. Bad for time. (The 6,600km return trip across the Nullabor took 13 days in case you were wondering, though they were not in a race).

There’s a good reason EVs are only 0.2% of all new Australian car purchases — with vast distances, a fragile grid, expensive electricity and heavy towing loads.

Plus these fast chargers are like adding “20 houses” to our grid, so will cripple the system or require billions of dollars of infrastructure costs.

The dumbest thing is that as long as they run off fossil fuels, they’ll probably increase our CO2 emissions, doing the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to be doing, but yet perversely helping plants grow.

Their big environmental benefit being mainly achieved by failing to do what they are intended to do.
What’s Powering The Electric Car Charging Station? A Diesel Generator

Makes you wonder which uses more energy in their production life-cycle a Tesla or a Humvee?

Tesla’s PR Can’t Fix This

These next two stories hit so many different strands of product liability and malfeasance for Tesla that I couldn’t pass them up. Photos are from the respective articles quoted below. Oh, and NHTSA is National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

It was just days ago that we reported that the NHTSA was opening an inquiry into the use of Tesla’s “Smart Summon” feature. Then, just hours ago we followed up by reporting that a petition had been filed with the NHTSA claiming that Tesla was using over the air software updates to cover up dangerous battery issues.

Today, we offer a stark reminder that just because the NHTSA has started to perk up its ears, doesn’t mean that Teslas haven’t stopped going up in flames all over the world. The most recent example comes from Austria, where after a Tesla was involved in an accident and caught fire, firefighters had to use a special container to transport the remains of the vehicle and the battery.

According to a translated version of this ORF News story, a 57 year old driver lost control of his Tesla and crashed into a tree, after first hitting the guardrail. It was then that the vehicle caught fire.

The driver was lucky, as “people passing by the scene of the accident took the man out of the vehicle and called emergency services.”

In order to put out the fire, the street had to be closed and fire authorities had to bring in a container user to cool the vehicle. The container held 11,000 liters (11 tons) of water and was designed to eliminate the biggest risk in an EV accident which is the battery catching fire.

The Tesla battery is mounted on the underside of the vehicle and contains acids and chemicals that can easily escape during a fire, placing the firefighters in danger.

Here is the problem: according to the article, some 11,000 liters of water are needed to finally extinguish a burning Tesla but an average fire engine only carries around 2,000 liters of water.

Fire brigade spokesman Peter Hölzl warned that the car could still catch fire for up to three days after the initial fire.

Bath tank to insure car doesn’t re-ignite

The container used is said to be suitable for all common electric vehicles. It measures 6.8 meters long, 2.4 meters wide and 1.5 meters high, it is (obviously) waterproof and weighs three tons.
11 Tons Of Water And “Special Container” Used To Extinguish Burning Tesla In Austria

(emphasis in original story)

We have previously documented the failure of Tesla’s Smart Summons on the blog and now we learn of another issue about Tesla batteries which I will get to in a moment. Then the hazards faced by firefighters. Why does Europe have a full immersion bathtub for electric vehicle fires, and nobody here does? You did catch the part about a Tesla can catch fire up to three days after an accident? I bet that little nugget isn’t in the owner handbook.

Here’s part of the battery story.

A notice published on Tuesday by the NHTSA said they had received reports about a possible defect in Tesla battery packs that could cause fires. The battery packs affected reportedly received new management software as part of over the air updates that were issued by Tesla in May.

The petition was filed by the Law Offices of Edward C. Chen, a California law firm representing a number of Tesla drivers in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

Chen argued that Tesla is using software updates to cover up a potentially wide spread and dangerous issue: “Tesla is using over-the-air software updates to mask and cover up a potentially widespread and dangerous issue with the batteries in their vehicles.”

Chen has also argued that Tesla owners “saw the range of their Teslas on a charge fall by 25 miles (40 kilometers) or more after Tesla released two battery software updates beginning in May.”

The notice states: “The petitioner alleges that the software updates were in response to a potential defect that could result in non-crash fires in the affected battery packs and that Tesla should have notified NHTSA of the existence of this potential defect and conducted a safety recall. The petitioner also alleges that this software update reduces the driving range of the affected vehicles.”
The NHTSA Is Now (Finally) Looking Into Tesla Battery Fire Issues

(emphasis in original story)

Folks, I keep saying that the moment the government subjects Tesla to the same standards as other automakers that they are in for a world of hurt. Thankfully that day may finally be approaching.

Electric vehicles are a novelty not a solution. In a fair and free market, they would all but disappear. We tried electric vehicles a century ago and they failed in the market. It would take much more than cheap and abundant electrical power to make them mainstream. The proof that such a day is still far from us is the insistence of politicians and environmentalists that wind and solar are the answer.