Scattershots – 4jul21 (updated 9jul21)

George Rebane

There are no more paladins living among us.  When some public atrocity is being committed, like someone or two having the crap kicked out of them on a sidewalk, or a Molotov cocktail thrown through a store window, or a brutal execution of someone sitting in a car, then all the gathered onlookers are concerned about is that they get a good video of the goings on, no matter how long the goings on are ongoing.  Concern for the immediate wellbeing of our fellow man, no matter how unjustly he is being treated, is no longer of any concern to anyone.  Where are the CCWs when we need them?  After all, they are issued specifically for use in case of incipient murder or mayhem.  But we can rejoice, the videos ultimately appear on various social media channels.  (Example @208pm on the last Sandbox)

[5jul21 update]  The XL Pipeline people are suing our federal government for $15B damages.  It is a proper suit since the Biden administration, in launching one of its earliest disasters for the country, abrogated its contract with the builder after it had most of the pipeline completed.  Bumblebrain’s compliance to his rabid anti-American Left terminated the country's energy independence, put the world’s oil prices back in the hands of OPEC et al, and resulted in the spiking of gasoline prices across the land as a major contributor to the resurgence of inflation.  The latter being a hit to the wallets of all Americans, hurting most the poor and the middle class.  The Dems only hope for 2022 is that most of our electorate will remain sufficiently numb between the ears so that they cannot ferret out the source of their pain.

The dismantling of Hong Kong by the CCP remains an unreported mystery to the global news machinery.  No one has yet to report that it is in Beijing’s interest to destroy HK as a leading global financial center in the shadow of which Shanghai, mainland’s own financial center, has been forced to compete.  HK has been the port of call for international monies seeking investments in the mainland, Taiwan, and all of south Asia.  This felicitous situation has buttressed Taiwan and highlighted the business efficiencies practiced in an economically free environment with that practiced under strict CCP control.  To Beijing, and its compliant allies in Singapore, HK has been an irritating sore that needed to be excised.  Today things are getting so bad that major US tech companies are threatening to leave the city to save their staffs from trumped-up criminal charges (more here).  But no one is connecting the dots on HK’s ultimate fate as becoming just another seaport to serve China’s southern Guangdong province and its industrial capital Guangzhou.

Our Sacramento stupidos have suddenly realized that the state’s ongoing rape of its power generating infrastructure will leave us short of electricity as we proceed into a hot summer.  The Epoch Times reports (here) the CA Energy Commission and its PUC have asked the CA Independent System Operator to contract for more energy in the coming months.  There is no guarantee that such energy supplies will be available from other states similarly afflicted.  In their letter they lied that the need arises in spite of “California using all available tools to increase electricity reliability this summer,”  In reality, they abandoned the available and reliable tools of safe nuclear and clean natural gas power plants for a poorly conceived, inadequate, and premature green energy strategy that will guarantee power shortfalls in California for years to come.  Our state’s political monopoly has literally shit in the old well before the new one was dug (from an old Estonian proverb).  In sum, the politically incorrect but reliable Plan A has been abandoned, and there is no Plan B.  (H/T to reader)

[8jul21 update] Worthless Degrees.  Here’s a common story from the 8jul21 WSJ.  “Recent film program graduates of Columbia University who took out federal student loans had a median debt of $181,000.  Yet two years after earning their master’s degrees, half of the borrowers were making less than $30,000 a year.  The Columbia program offers the most extreme example of how elite universities in recent years have awarded thousands of master’s degrees that don’t provide graduates enough early career earnings to begin paying down their federal student loans, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Education Department data.”  For the arithmetically curious $30K/yr = $15/hr – the intended national minimum wage.  In Nevada County today an apprentice electrician with no experience and without even a high school diploma can get a job for $15-18/hr.

Classroom video monitoring.  The teachers’ unions are dead set against any video recordings of classroom instruction and goings on.  They claim it violates the students’ rights to privacy.  There is no such right to privacy for students in a public school classroom.  For generations parents and other interested parties have always been welcome observers in America’s classrooms.  With today’s technology it would be an easy matter to put streaming/stored classroom videos online so that parents could log in to see what little Johnny/Sally was being taught and assigned as homework.  My wife Jo Ann was a regular fixture in our kids’ grade school classrooms.  But not today, and the reason is clear.  The crap that marginally competent teachers put out under today’s closely guarded cloud of pedagogy would at a minimum disappoint and, most likely, enrage parents.  And this is doubly so as Critical Race Theory has started tainting all manner of K-12 subjects in our unionized public schools.

[9jul21 update]  ‘CDC Recommends Schools Open Fully Immediately, Says Vaccinated Teachers And Students Don’t Need Masks’  This has been true for over six months.  It is the work of the evil party and Team Biden that has prevented our children from resuming their education, and school attendance which never needed to be interrupted last year.  All this has accomplished is to make more reliable Democrat voters, which, of course, was the purpose of the school shutdowns in the first place.

Comments

[The Estonian Fox]

nad paskuvad vanasse kaevu enne uue kaevamist.
Those are true words for meie Sacramento rumalad.

Sounds about right to me, George.

I can now fully appreciate why they want to mine more lithium. Not for their EV batteries, but for soothing down their bipolar brains.

[George Rebane]

Efox 1135am - Well done on the translation Mr Fox. The only minor nit is in 'meie Sacramento rumalad' for 'Our Sacramento stupidos'. Even Google doesn't pick up the correct form 'rumalaid' as the possessive plural predicate.

The exact translation of 'nad paskuvad vanasse kaevu enne uue kaevamist' is 'they shit in the old well before digging a new one'. The old Estonian proverb is in the form of an admonition - 'Don't shit in the old well before you dig a new one.' which in Estonian is 'Ära paskuta vanasse kaevu enne kui uue kaevad.'

Estonian is syntactically an extremely efficient language, allowing entire phrases to be made by simply embellishing a noun/verb with pre- and suffixes. That said, as a Finno-Ugric language, Estonian has at least 15 cases, depending on how you count them. And polite speech requires the proper use of the formal v the familiar forms of all pronouns and verbs. It's an absolute bitch to learn as an adult, but glorious to speak, read, and write (especially mellifluous poetry). Finally, as a phonetic language, children learn to read it 'instantly' by just running together the names of the letters in a word which then pronounces itself. (More than you wanted to know; apologies - Palun vabanda mind.)

[The Estonian Fox]

I bought a book by a linguist, about languages (duh), many years ago. He was fluent (so he said) in 10 or more languages. He posed this question to himself - what was the most difficult language?

His answer was Finnish. To seal that deal, he conceded to the 15 or so different cases just for the word 'no/not'. Since Finnish & Estonian are kissin' cousins, not surprised at the number of cases. In his defense - he may never have heard of Estonian.

Many languages cannot have spelling bees, because they are phonetic. What you see is what you say, what you say is how it's spelled.

And yet we still have 'educators' in the States that insist on not teaching phonics to English speakers, because phonics only covers 75-80% of English words. I'll be more than happy to take only 75% of Jeff Bezos's net worth. I'm not greedy.

[George Rebane]

Efox 239pm - Am surprised to hear of any 'linguist' admitting to having studied Finnish (one of the 3 Finno-Ugric languages of Europe; other two are Estonian and Hungarian). Finnish and Estonian are closer than kissing cousins, they are grammatically identical and very close syntactically. Hungarian is the outlier; grammatically close but syntactically far removed.

As to the enormous benefits of dealing with a phonetic language, Allan Kiisk, an Estonian I was introduced a few years back who lives in northern California, has done the hard work of converting English into a phonetic language. The results of his work are published in 'Simpel-Fonetik Dictionary' (1st ed, 2012) which is "a simple, consistent, and logical method of writing based on the single-sound-per-letter principle." It's a marvelous piece of research that, if adopted by our educational system, would raise our functional literacy rate from its current 40% to almost 100%, and have all kids instantly reading at grade level.

The new version is 'Simple Phonetic English Spelling' (2nd ed, 2018). For native English speakers this book will make fascinating reading of how easy our language could become to read and write.
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Phonetic-English-Spelling-Allan/dp/0578201011/ref=sr_1_2

[The Estonian Fox]

Re: Phonetic spelling in English, already done (but in 1946)
MEIHEM IN CE KLASRUM by Dolton Edwards (written with a little 'tung in tshik')

Read more: https://www.city-data.com/forum/great-debates/3226494-making-english-spelling-phonetically-consistent-4.html

He long ago did some of the math er.. fonetiks.

[The Estonian Fox]

There are college profs who record their lectures for remote learning, and future use. I'm sure there are a number of high school teachers who do the same. They are the ones not afraid to show their expertise, competence, and on occasion - incompetence in their lessons.

The Wuhan virus exposed the charlatan teachers when classes went online. The parents were able to view a good portion of their kids' everyday lessons. I bet that many parents were surprised and upset at the manner and content of the classes. Thank you again, Mr. Trump, for forcing the liberals to show their beliefs to Americans.

[Bill Tozer]

Oh boy. The very thought of teachers wearing body-cams in the classroom or the very hint of monitors and recorders watching the lessons has the usual cable all up in arms. Soviets ! Jack booted thugs! QAnon! Threats to our Democracy!!!

re: Mean Green Bottomless Pit Machine

MORE EVIDENCE OF THE USELESSNESS OF “GREEN” ENERGY”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/more-evidence-of-the-uselessness-of-green-energy.php

California is searching for out of state energy contracts during a friggin record breaking heat way, lol. Should,of planned ahead.

And speaking of A-Non (to sneak into the topic....

GASLIGHTING: Joy Reid, Guest Insist Parents at School Board Meetings Are QAnon People

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2021/07/08/gaslighting-joy-reid-guest-insist-parents-school-board-meetings

Couldn’t resist. “Michael Cohen is not in jail, I just saw him on MSPMS.”

[Don Bessee]

Where is the pony tail of ignorance when he needs a refresher course on his orgasmic fanboy act for this piece of shit, no mea culpa coming from the po ol fakenewsman --

https://www.foxnews.com/media/geraldo-media-looks-foolish-for-promoting-loathsome-creature-michael-avenatti-as-attorney-sentenced

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Our Sacramento Stupidos

CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE

“Green” energy policies don’t work. This is a matter of physics, not politics, so California and other states are on a collision course with reality.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/california-nightmare-2.php

[scenes]

'“Green” energy policies don’t work. This is a matter of physics, not politics, so California and other states are on a collision course with reality.'

I used to be blown away by the people who don't know the difference between power generation and power storage, now I just accept it as fact. Basing a power grid on something that only works in the daytime, mostly in clear weather, is an odd concept lacking really industrial-sized storage.

I expect that the California solution will be it's typical one. Export the problem. Use some adjacent state's coal/gas/nuke plant to do the dirty work and claim victory at home.

Truth is PG&E would be 100% solar if you could make money at it. They don't care how it's done.

Reminds me of all the fooferaw about the General Motors EV1. Lotsa talk about how THEY KILLED THE CAR BECAUSE THE OIL COMPANIES!!! Like the man said in the movie, 'GM would sell you a car that ran on pig shit if it sold'.

[Bill Tozer]

MAGIC BUS
“Speaking of electric vehicles… Possibly the dumbest thing any country could do from an energy standpoint is to promote widespread use of electric vehicles, while simultaneously mandating reliance on wind and solar energy, which work less than half the time.

Moreover, governments’ politically-motivated reliance on electric vehicles like buses has been a disaster. This is a typical “green” fiasco:...”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/magic-bus-2.php

[Bill Tozer]

re: Our Sacramento stupidos have suddenly realized that the state’s ongoing rape of its power generating infrastructure will leave us short of electricity as we proceed into a hot summer

Say goodbye to 10% of California’s reliable 24/7 clean energy. 10% of CA power is going to be raped of its power generating infrastructure. Screwed, blued, and tattooed.

CALIFORNIA’S NUKE FOLLIES

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/californias-nuke-follies.php