N. California goes off the grid
Implementing A.O.C.’s Green New Deal
Some catastrophes ARE man– (SORRY!) person-made
The Blaska Easily Revocable Charitable Trust is mailing (special delivery) a 12-pack of AA batteries to Brother Richard in Sonoma, California. (AKA Northern Venezuela.) We do what we can to mitigate world suffering. Because California north of the Golden Gate bridge has gone dark. It’s a blackout without air raid sirens, which presumably would not operate because there is no electricity.
San Francisco and the Emerald City of Madison WI may as well be twin cities. Both are beautiful places made more wondrous by magical thinking. The two locales enjoy (if that is the word) Progressive Politics written with a capital P. Madison’s new mayor is a farm team version of Elizabeth Warren. (Madison was too liberal for “Havana Paul” Soglin!) San Francisco is Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and its former mayor — now governor — Gavin Newsom, having succeeded Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown.
Anyone seen Greta Thunberg?
Squatters, babbling street people, aggressive panhandlers, white guilt, cop-bashing, obsessed with identity politics, nanny-state regulations, failing schools, high-taxes, fossil-fuel hating sanctuary cities — Madison is San Francisco, only a month later.
So the free-market Austrians here at the Werkes admit to a little schadenfreude over “California’s Dark Ages.” as recounted by the Wall Street Journal:
“Californians are learning to live like the Amish after investor-owned utility PG&E this week shut off power to two million or so residents to prevent wildfires amid heavy, dry winds.”
Nicolas Maduro says hello
“Up in Humboldt County, searches for batteries turned into shoving matches. Residents shopped in supermarkets with flashlights. Looters ransacked a liquor store. Lines for gas snaked around the block and power generators sold out as soon as they arrived.”
The Journal’s editorial continues: “Stores have experienced runs on oil lamps — yes, those still exist — and emergency generators fueled by gasoline, propane, or diesel.”
Blame the state’s largest blackout on a perfect storm of bad policies. … Its customers pay some of the highest rates in the nation … Opposition to logging and prescribed burns in California’s forests compounded by a seven-year drought has yielded 147 million dead trees that make for combustible fuel. … For years the utility skimped on safety upgrades and repairs while pumping billions into green energy and electric-car subsidies to please its overlords in Sacramento.
… Still, liberals in Sacramento want to abolish fossil fuels.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: California wildfires last year pumped out more carbon dioxide than all the state’s businesses, homes and farms combined, offsetting state-mandated emission reductions nine times over.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
9 responses to “Progressives are in the dark”
Expect the usual spittle-flecked slobberings about the Global Warming that’s here and worse than the models predicted as the unrepentant culprit.
The…um…burning question: will this climate-inspired catastrophe heartlessly pluck off a statistically significant number of Global Warming deaths?
Not exactly.
Global climate-related, as opposed to non-climate-related deaths, are (and this is where it gets GOOD!) <a href="WAY DOWN; 98.9 % from 1920 (atmospheric CO2 303 ppm) to 2019 (atmospheric CO2 406 ppm).
Unsure if these figures include the death of scary narratives.
Anywho, this may inspire a blood-curdling RUH ROH from Warmalista Alarmacysts near-n-far because plant-food, I mean, a trace gas essential to all forms of life on Mother Gaia, I mean, CO2, is deadly, isn’t it?
Brrr!!!
The Gotch
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Golly Dave, seems like you missed the Wall St. Journal article on PG&E’s machinations over the years. It appears what we have here is the failure of a public utility, by it’s own hand. Sometimes I think your blind disdain for liberals clouds your writing. Check it out:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-cat-and-mouse-game-pg-es-long-record-of-run-ins-with-regulators-and-courts-11567707731
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Karma laughs at Californians in the dark.
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One factor you forgot in your otherwise astute analysis of the West Coast’s out-of-control nanny state is that for many decades Californians–otherwise oh-so environmentally aware–have built their houses where none ought to exist: in canyons, on steep hillsides and other nearly inaccessible locations, so not surprisingly when fires happen (often caused intentionally or otherwise by humans, not natural events) those structures get incinerated. One of my best friends lives in Mendocino County–the heart of redwood country–where he’s owned and operated a restaurant for 4 decades. He constantly complains about the stifling regulations on small business owners yet consistently votes Democratic. Needless to say, I’ve pointed out this curious behavior to him many times to no avail. Must be something in the water out there.
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Yes, Dave, corporate America in charge of public utilities. Look what you get. The “efficiencies” of the free market? You guys make the argument FOR the socialists – nationalize them damn utilities! And while you’re at it, do it to healthcare, too. Taking care of shareholders and CEOs gives the USA by far most expensive healthcare in the world, yet our system only ranks #37; barely beating out Slovenia (#38) and Cuba (#39). Ay carumba!
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Dave you forgot to mention how a bankrupt company like PG&E is paying out over 245 million dollars in bonuses rather than putting money into their infrastructure to keep profit driven conflagrations from happening. Us democratic socialists don’t mind profit, but putting profit before safety, before health, before country should be punishable.
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And now, THE REST OF THE STORY: “to spur PG&E to meet safety goals to prevent wildfires, a federal judge said on Tuesday.”
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There is a difference between corporate citizenship and corporate malfeasance/greed.
https://www.kqed.org/news/11737336/judge-pge-paid-out-stock-dividends-instead-of-trimming-trees?fbclid=IwAR2aNsTOY-RaSEkBPjQXAXjI4_OWQno-ryWnGRmJH3cihgZBOoMaIXdw050
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I remember a pastor and business man who explained that what he found easily, understood, and thought everyone else understood as well turned out not to be the case. Over the years, through listening, research, work, and such, I listened and learned. Over time, understanding grew. This was something I had prayed for. As a teacher, I became more and more aware of teaching through understanding. As a teacher, I realized the importance of getting the students to think for themselves. But thinking for yourself isn’t just thinking. We all do that. It’s “seeing” clearly, to the core of ideas, able to separate intellectual ideas from understanding. **Whenever I talk with someone, I’m looking for where the person is coming from. Are they talking from the intellect or is there a ring of understanding: understanding that is born of reality and experience, and what that experience entails. Yes, all that.
**If a person comes from a place of understanding, experience helping, I never worry about the choices they make, for they will recognize, with time, the reasons for consequences and good fortune. ***But I discovered something else. Seemingly good natured people, along with others, haven’t the faintest idea what understanding is. They go through life, all kinds of thoughts in their heads, but they understand none of it. Many are emotionalized, moving others through emotions and reactions, but they can’t think for themselves: quietly. This explains a lot. This explains why many make decisions, that while seems good to them and their supporters, are empty of any real understanding. And when we attempt a conversation, there often is no place for dialogue, for they are convinced of their unexamined ideas. They won’t look to the core of their beliefs. If challenged, they become argumentative. And this explains a lot: why many live in fear, wanting to change everyone else so they can feel safe.
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