[Robert Bryce] H.L. Mencken, the dyspeptic journalist and literary critic who had his heyday in Baltimore about a century ago, coined several memorable lines. Among his most enduring: "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
Mencken’s line came to mind after reading an editorial in the New York Times called "We Desperately Need a New Power Grid. Here’s How to Make It Happen." The piece began: "To tap the potential of renewable energy, the United States needs to dramatically expand the electric grid between places with abundant wind and sunshine and places where people live and work. And it needs to happen fast...without new power lines, much of that electricity will continue to be generated by burning carbon."
It cites a report published by the Department of Energy in February — the "National Transmission Needs Study" — which says the U.S. needs to build 47,300 gigawatt-miles of new power lines by 2035. That would, according to the agency, expand the existing transmission grid by 57%. The Times’ editorial writers claim that this build out can be fostered by putting "a single federal agency in charge of major transmission projects." That agency, of course, is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The editorial then cites a bill introduced in March by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) that would create a new siting authority within FERC that would "ease" the regulatory process of building new transmission. The Times claims that "shifting decision-making from state and local governments to the federal government would create a single, national forum in which policymakers can weigh the costs and benefits of power projects."
There’s the "clear, simple, and wrong answer" that Mencken was referring to. Putting FERC in charge of our sprawling electric grid — a network that was constructed over multiple decades — won’t result in the quick construction of tens of thousands of miles of high-voltage transmission lines in less than a dozen years. Reality crushes moonbeams and unicorns as the article goes technical.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] At the initiative of the new President of Peru, Dina Boluarte,
...a communist of the Marxist-Leninist type until she got herself expelled last year...
the country's Congress approved the entry of the American military contingent into the country. The official purpose of the presence is the education and training of military and police personnel, which must be carried out from the beginning of June to the end of December 2023.
The local population and representatives of the elites had many questions for Boluarte before, but now there is another reason forcing the public to seek out dictatorial habits from the president. Some even talked about how, desperate to quell popular discontent, Boluarte asked Washington for help in suppressing the protests.
Continued on Page 49
#1
The official purpose of the presence is the education and training of military and police personnel, which must be carried out from the beginning of June to the end of December 2023.
I think we already know who is behind this deployment and how the story ends.
#3
Yes, guys from the 7th will show up and train their Peruvian counterparts. At first they will hate each others' guts but over time a certain respect will form and they will go on to ride out and defeat Geronimo together.
Or was that the sub plot for 'The 3 Amigos'? Oh well, small matter ought to be good for a very poorly supervised few billion.
[Daily Caller] The Sacklers, the billionaire family that owns Purdue Pharma, will receive government immunity for their role in sparking America’s opioid crisis. The immunity is part of an agreement approved by a federal appeals court Tuesday.
With its decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit paved the way toward finally putting an end to the Sackler family saga. In exchange for immunity from current and future civil suits, the Sacklers will pay out $6 billion from their personal fortune. The settlement will finalize Purdue’s bankruptcy filing that has been stalled since 2019, the Huffington Post reported.
While $6 billion might sound like an astronomical sum, it’s not. It is but a drop in the bucket of the damage that this family has done. (RELATED: American Cartel: Billionaire Family Behind OxyContin Apparently Spends ZILCH Rehabbing Addicts)
Purdue’s "highly aggressive" marketing campaign began in 1996 and helped convince doctors to prescribe OxyContin to non-terminal patients that otherwise would not have received addictive opiates.
A hearing in the House Oversight and Reform Committee summarized how and why the family instructed Purdue to target "high-volume prescribers," ignore "safeguards" against opiate abuse, and "deflect blame" away from themselves onto those suffering from addiction.
#2
Fueled by the relatively recent introduction of fentanyl, the opioid epidemic started by the Sacklers is now worse than ever.
And yet, nobody seems to care who is producing and pushing fentanyl. I think if the Sacklers had shared some of their lucre with the right politicians then nobody would be saying much about oxycontin either.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/01/2023 12:30 Comments ||
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#3
Well, Saint Fauci has been doing it for years, and I see how hard the law has come down upon him.
#4
So what exactly do the politicians propose to do for people who are suffering from severe pain?
Posted by: Tom ||
06/01/2023 13:16 Comments ||
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#5
Euthenasia
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2023 13:39 Comments ||
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#6
The Canadians are well down the road to whacking anyone who asks for an aspirin. Feinstein’s staff will probably get her to volunteer for the Canadian treatment within the next few weeks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/01/2023 16:55 Comments ||
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[Hot Air] This week, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden cut a deal to raise the debt limit. The breakthrough came after three months of Biden pledging not to even negotiate over the debt limit. Instead, Biden was forced to concede to a 1% cap on increases for non-military spending, a cutback on IRS funding, a clawback of some unspent COVID-19 allocations, and addition of work requirements for some federal aid.
The compromise deal was indeed far less than House Republicans had demanded, as Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., tweeted, "After factoring in a small cut to discretionary spending over the next 2 yrs, we are still talking about ~$6T more or less in spending bc of large increases in spending elsewhere. ... Govt grew massively over the past 3 years. This growth was supposed to be emergency funding only during COVID. During this time, govt grew 40% or by $2 trillion from 2019 to 2023. We went from spending just over $4T to spending just over $6T."
Every word of that critique is true. Compared to conservative ideals, the compromise bill is indeed a flaming bag of fiscal manure. But conservative ideals weren’t on the table. Biden is the president. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — thanks in large part to the tender 2020 ministrations of President Donald Trump in the Georgia Senate runoffs and his further interference in the 2022 Senate races in Georgia, Arizona, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — is still the Senate majority leader. This means that Republicans were never going to get a big win on budgetary matters.
#1
2022 Senate races in Georgia, Arizona, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania
You think the races in GA, AZ, and PA are open, transparent, auditable, then I have a bridge to sell you in San Francisco. For the same reason DoJ and the FBI flip off the House investigations, its all rigged.
[Breitbart] Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called out Elon Musk and other American CEOs for catering to communist-controlled China for economic gain. Shocking Isn't It ?
In a statement, Ramaswamy took issue with Musk’s recent meeting with China’s Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, who released a statement praising the CEO for his support of Chinese business relations. In response, Tesla Vice President Grace Tao relayed Gang’s statement on the CCP-controlled social media platform Weibo. Ramaswamy said that Elon Musk allowed himself to become a geopolitical pawn of the CCP along with other CEOs. Smart young fellow has identified the obvious sell-out.
"Elon Musk’s recent comments are part of a broader pattern of U.S. CEOs pandering to the Chinese Communist Party in return for favorable access to the Chinese market," Ramaswamy said. "This is how the CCP turns American companies and executives into geopolitical pawns: the CCP dangles business benefits in return for prominent corporate executives speaking out and behaving in a manner that advances CCP objectives globally."
Ramaswamy then cited Musk’s call for a "peaceful reunification" of Taiwan and China as an example of his dangerous praise of China. His comments were followed by the CCP awarding "Musk and Tesla with a favorable tax exemption in Shanghai." The proverbial 'pay-to-play.'
[Townhall] Who here is really disappointed with the debt ceiling deal? I know I am, and I have not even studied it in detail yet. Once again, we have to compromise. Once again, we have to swallow something we hate. But what do you expect? We, the Republicans, threw the 2022 midterm elections away. Well, it turns out that elections have consequences, particularly blown ones. And right now, we're experiencing a consequence colonoscopy.
I really would have liked the GOP under Kevin McCarthy to force the Democrats to accept a budget deal that achieved all our objectives and focused on all our priorities. Whatever this compromise does — and, as of this writing, I have not parsed it closely — it will not do that. Some people are really disappointed right now. I get it, but I think they should have been really disappointed six months ago when we fumbled the midterm elections. That's when this outcome became inevitable. Not a lot of hope for the future in the remaining text.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/01/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
if the Republicans can stick to the terms of the deal it will be IMO a pretty good deal.
it is, however, a big IF
also this presumes SCOTUS finds the President's tuition forfeit constitutional
also presumes the IRS uses its new funds without persecuting people for political opinions
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/01/2023 15:41 Comments ||
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#2
Bad is the enemy of even worse.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/01/2023 15:42 Comments ||
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#3
They removed the ceiling and pushed the next cap review til the lame duck. In exchange the Dems gave up a hand full of magic beans.
What I would like to see is a reporter ask each congressman that voted for this bill what their personal debt ceiling is. By that I mean what national debt amount would be so shameful to them that they would be forced by conscience to resign immediately.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/01/2023 19:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Breitbart] Republican presidential candidate 
[Townhall] Who here is really disappointed with the debt ceiling deal? I know I am, and I have not even studied it in detail yet. Once again, we have to compromise. Once again, we have to swallow something we hate. But what do you expect? We, the Republicans, threw the 2022 midterm elections away. Well, it turns out that elections have consequences, particularly blown ones. And right now, we're experiencing a consequence colonoscopy.
