WELCOME TO LETTERS FROM THE CRANK, CRANKY COMMENTARY ON CURRENT EVENTS – Warning to snowflakes and the politically correct crowd, this website likely will offend you, but is entertaining

Reference: Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing – WSJ; Allies of fishermen file suit to reverse Vineyard Wind approval – The Boston Globe; Lithium Batteries’ Dirty Secret: Manufacturing Them Leaves Massive Carbon Footprint | IndustryWeek; Scientists just overcame a major hurdle in nuclear fusion research | Salon.com; IPCC 2021 report: How bad will climate change get? – Vox

File this under “you can’t make this stuff up.” England uses a lot of wind power from windmill units in the North Sea. But over the last couple of months, believe it or not, the North Sea hasn’t been too windy. So England’s buying carbon-based power from European sources, and the price of that has increased substantially as a result.

And of course it’s climate change and fossil fuels that have made the wind stop blowing. Closer to home, you can rely on fishermen and fishermenstruatingpersons to litigate the various proposed wind farms off the Massachusetts coast, so that will be tied up in the courts for years. So that isn’t going to help anytime soon. And just wait until new mini-nuke plants start to be seriously proposed, that will be yet another litigation bonanza for someone. And others are still hot on developing nuclear fusion – we’ll see how that goes. Not to mention that these fancy batteries for e-cars, by and large, aren’t carbon-efficient in the least since their manufacture leaves huge carbon footprints. (“Once in operation, electric cars certainly reduce your carbon footprint, but making the lithium-ion batteries could emit 74% more CO2 than for conventional cars.”) And just curiously, where do the old batteries go? Just asking.

Anyway, the Green New Deal is going to solve all our problems, right? Even if you buy the unfounded apocalyptic clamorings of the progressives, who evidently have not actually read any of the reports they rely on, such as those put out by the UN. The most recent one of which, in fact, backs off the dire predictions of prior reports. Won’t read that in the NT Time or the Boston Globe. Not that there isn’t work to be done, but it ain’t as bad as the left wingnuts say.

Yes, our own Representative Seth Moulton, never one to say no to a moronic publicity stunt, flew into Afghanistan with an idiot friend and, according to him, saved lives! What a guy. Of course, it is critical in this debacle that we have Congresspersons on the ground at the Kabul airport “overseeing” evacuations since the military is obviously incapable of doing their job as well as Superman Seth. Yes, let’s have some attention-seeking politicians just appear on the scene to, as they put it, conduct Congressional “oversight.” Yeah, and we’ve got a bridge to sell you. For those doing some actual evacuation work at the airport, it must have been even worse than having the kids pestering you with stupid questions while you’re in the middle of something. Superman Seth retorts that he was thanked for not giving any notice of his visit because, he claims, someone told him it was better that way since they didn’t have to prepare anything. So now the lack of even basic courtesy is a good thing! And so now it’s OK for any big shot to just show up at hot-spots anytime and anywhere to provide “oversight”? That’s the logical end point for Superman’s thinking, if you can call it that. Is that what we want?

With all due respect to Superman Seth’s war experience and decorations, those unfortunately for him don’t equate to having intelligence and common sense. It’s really amazing how many Harvard grads lack both, most of whom seem to end up in government making policy, alas. We propose a new law – that Harvard graduates (and professors) should be barred from any kind of government employment or influence of any kind. We’d all be better off. The “best and brightest,” right. Maybe instead all these brainiacs should have to actually work for a living. Just a thought.

But Superman Seth has gone to the well of relying on his military experience as justification for doing stupid things too often, and any respect for him on that account is now dried up and there is no benefit of the doubt for him anymore. Sigh…there just aren’t enough words to describe this kind of arrogant cluelessness, although several choice ones come to mind as a start…

Biden Says He Will Get Americans Out of Afghanistan, but Warns of Possible Losses – WSJ

OK, so we’re finally out of Afghanistan…sort of. We’ve abandoned the whole country except for the airport, but there’s still 10-15-18,000 Americans still left (the numbers are vague but substantial). So how do we get them out? Of course, let’s send troops back into the country to find Americans! Though Biden warns about “losses” as a result. Duh.

Yes, there’s nothing like putting the cart before the horse. What a marvelous plan Biden had here. Let’s get all the troops out first (and leave all our armaments behind so the Taliban can use them to murder everyone who might have smiled at an American), just so we can say we’re out, and then worry about who’s left behind. And then decide to go back in when the eminently foreseeable public/media pressure gets to be too much.

Wouldn’t you think someone would have thought this out a little better? If this was a movie it’d get a Razzie. If this debacle was a cadet’s answer to a West Point essay exam, it’d get an F. We’d say Biden should be impeached for this colossal screw-up, but with Kamala Harris as the backup, well, we can’t really go there seriously, can we, though it’s fun to talk about. Remember George Bush the Elder, who had Dan Quayle as his VP so no one would either assassinate or impeach him. Pretty foolproof, isn’t it? Biden certainly took a lesson from that playbook.

Anyway, this all would be a terrible joke if it wasn’t for the thousands of Americans who lost their lives or were wounded and maimed, and those surely yet to come as long as a moron like Biden is making decisions.

The ironic part is that Biden is 100% correct to get out since Afghanistan historically is a morass for any occupier and we never should have stayed once bin Laden was killed, but obviously not a lot of thought went into figuring out how to do it in a sensible way. One hopes he at some point has the common decency to apologize for this mess and for letting down all those who served.

                First, as everyone knows by now, the Bernie Sanders-run Democratic party is pulling out all the stops on stopping climate change in its tracks by mandating reductions in carbon emissions in various ways, including elimination of coal-fired power plants and requiring electric vehicles.  Of course, no one’s got answers for two critical problems.  One, that an electric car has to last at least 100,000 miles BEFORE it becomes carbon “neutral” or saves energy overall simply because of the energy needed to produce its electric batteries.  Two, that unless something pretty amazing happens, the charging of all these cars (assuming you can find a charging station, and assuming you can wait the hours needed for a charge, as opposed to five minutes at the gas pump, and assuming that there’s enough electricity during the night to charge these cars notwithstanding the fact that the sun doesn’t power solar panels during the night) is going to be way more than a mere inconvenience.  In any event, Biden and the Sanders crowd want non-renewable energy today. And of course on his first day in office he cancelled the Keystone oil pipeline.

                On the other hand, today the price of gas is rising rapidly due to OPEC production cutbacks during the pandemic.  So what does Biden want to have happen?  He’s pressing OPEC to increase production so americans can have cheaper gas and use more!  HA!  HA!  You can’t make this stuff up.  Where does this action come into the climate-change-busting plan?  Not to mention that putting the “progressive” Democrats in charge of anything is a recipe for disaster, as they have proven time and time again.

                Second, Biden and lots of others supposedly are “surprised” that the Taliban is so quickly taking over Afghanistan.  Duh.  The British couldn’t subdue Afghanistan.  Then the Russians tried and failed.  Now the Americans have tried and failed and finally are waving the white flag.  The political cover for that was years of negotiations with the Afghans and the Taliban about America exiting the country.  As if any “agreement” with the Taliban is worth the paper it’s on.  Only an moron believes anything other than that the Taliban, like cockroaches, would simply hid out in their caves and wait for the Americans to leave, and then they would take over.  This ass-covering “negotiations” business was all for show.  No sane person would “negotiate” with the Taliban with any hope that they would comply with any agreement once the Americans were gone.  To at any point in the last 20 years believe that the Afghans themselves were capable of defending against the Taliban (or the local Girl Scout troop, for that matter), or to believe that the Taliban would not take over the country the instant the Americans left, is the height of folly and self-deception.  And so it has come to pass…

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Afghans, are going to suffer and die because of American stupidity, cupidity and disingenuousness, just like Vietnam. And the poor Afghan women, they’re just totally screwed, it’s back to the 13th century for them. It didn’t have to be this way.

Why is no one clamoring for Biden’s resignation or impeachment for authorizing an action he himself said is illegal and unconstitutional and would lose in court, but was justified only because it would buy more time to get already appropriated money to renters and landlords? Is there a more blatant example of consciously and intentionally violating the law and the Constitution?

Although we suppose the simple answer is look at the spineless nonentity who would replace him…

References:       bHgIEcGkQNGSg4rKZT97-WSJNewsPaper-8-6-2021.pdf; Elizabeth Warren laid into Amazon and Facebook for trying to sideline new FTC chair Lina Khan. Both companies ‘fear’ Khan’s antitrust expertise, she said. (msn.com)

                First, a federal court ruled that the CDC’s eviction moratorium was unconstitutional and beyond its regulatory authority.  Then the Supreme Court said if it is going to be extended, Congress has to extend it, the CDC lacks the authority to do so.  Then the CDC agreed that it lacked legal authority to extend it.  Then the President – who is a lawyer, by the way – said both he and the CDC lacked authority to both extend it and do it in the first place.  Then the woke left protested.  Then suddenly the CDC says, and the President agrees, OK the CDC can implement a new moratorium because this one is “targeted” rather than the prior elephant-gun-to-kill-a-mouse approach.  And then the President expressly says that he doesn’t think this approach is legal, but what the hell, he’s going to do it anyway.  Because of the woke political pressure, is what he didn’t say but is obvious. 

                And all this unnecessary nonsense is notwithstanding the fact that the supposed bill for late rent nationwide is about $21 billion, yet over $43 billion previously appropriated and available to the states precisely for the purpose of paying rent for people who couldn’t pay during the pandemic goes unused.  That pot of money is just sitting there while Washington and state clowns twiddle their thumbs and point fingers at each other rather than getting off their asses and doing their job, which isn’t a hard job, by the way.  It’s not a hard job to write checks to people from a full bank account, is it?  Instead the President decides to admittedly violate the law and the Constitution by implementing yet another moratorium.  “Disconnect” is the word that comes to mind, as well as a host of others less neutral. 

                Second, the shenanigans around this supposed “bipartisan” “infrastructure” bill get curiouser and curiouser.  Obviously most of the Senators negotiating this thing flunked math, since the verbal gymnastics these clowns have to go through to claim that this bill is “paid for” already would earn any of them a 10 at the Olympics.  Even their own Congressional Budget Office rejects their claims and says the current bill would increase the national deficit by about $256 billion over the next ten years.  Only in Washington (aka Bidenland), and wherever the emperor got his new clothes, can everyone in power look at a watermelon, agree among themselves that it is an orange and then go out and try to convince the rest of Congress, and all of us, that it is indeed an orange despite the fact it is a watermelon.  They certainly seem to think that the rest of us are every bit as stupid as they are.

                Third, Lina Khan is the new Chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission.  She was named by the President basically to bring “big tech” to heel via the anti-trust laws.  She is famous for wanting to do so, so we all expect that she is going to pull the anti-trust regulatory reins as tight as she possibly can, all with the President’s express support.  So famous is she in fact that Amazon and Facebook have already asked that she be recused from any issues involving them. 

                Meanwhile, according to today’s WSJ, “the U.S. government is enlisting the help of tech companies, including Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google, to bolster the country’s critical infrastructure defenses against cyber threats after a string of high-profile attacks.  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency [“CISA”] unveiled the initiative Thursday, called the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.” 

                OK, so on the one hand, Biden’s FTC is going to go after “big tech” and break it up, while on the other hand, at the same time Biden’s CISA is begging “big tech” for help corraling an issue that the government cannot deal with itself.  Think of it as your neighbor using the local zoning laws to force you to tear down the $1 million dream house and deck and ornate yard and gardens you just built too close to his property line, while at the same time he’s asking you if he can use the house, deck and garden for his daughter’s wedding reception before you tear it down AND help him with the decorations AND bake the cake.  What’s your answer going to be? 

                Geez, do we smell an unholy deal here?  You lay off the anti-trust attacks and we’ll help you all you want.  Think that’s in play?  Remember this article in a few months when the rubber starts to hit the road on these issues. 

References:        Senators Markey, Warren and Congressman Al Green Introduce the Reconciliation in Place Names Act (senate.gov); Democrats Introduce Bill to Rename Places Named With Racist Slurs (businessinsider.com); Democrats introduced a bill to rename more than 1,000 forests, lakes, and mountain peaks named with racist slurs or offensive language (msn.com)

                Yes, your woke friends in the Democratic Party (the usual Warrens and Markeys, etc.) have recently been spending their time ferreting out all the allegedly objectionable racist and bigoted names from all the public place names in the country.  They do this on your nickel, by the way.  All the real issues that our elected represenatives should be dealing with are being sidelined because of the energy and money being funneled into ridiculous endeavors like finding every unwoke public place name in the country and then developing legislation to turn the unwoke into the woke.

                “The Reconciliation in Place Names Act would specifically:

• Create an advisory board composed of individuals with backgrounds in civil rights and race relations, tribal citizens, and organizations to bring a depth of knowledge and experience to the process.
• Solicit proposals from tribal nations, state and local governments, and members of the public, and would provide an opportunity for the public to comment on name change proposals.
• Require the advisory board to make recommendations to the Board on Geographic Names on geographic features to be renamed and to Congress on renaming Federal land units with offensive names.”

                For example:  “In 2015, 1,441 federally recognized places were identified as having questionable names. These places range from national forests, streams, and wilderness areas to features within the built environment such as bridges and monuments. . . . More than 600 places have the word ‘n – – – -,” a slur for Black people, in their name, according to a database from the US Geological Survey. In Oklahoma there is Dead N – – – – Spring, so-named because a deceased Black person was found there, according to the USGS.  In New Mexico, there is a reservoir called W – – – – – – – Tank, named with a slur for Mexican people living in the US. N early 800 results are returned by the USGS database when searching for the term ‘s – – – -,’ an offensive word for Native American women.”

                It’s fascinating how no one wants to actually use these words in articles that specifically are about them, so in some cases we are all left guessing at what the alleged “slur” actually is.  In the above quote, “n – – – – ” is supposed to be a slur for black.  The usual “slur” for black is “nigger,” or “n – – – – -,” which has one more dash than in this article, so it likely isn’t nigger.  We can only assume this stands for “negro,” which isn’t a “slur” towards blacks by any stretch of the imagination.  We assume that most blacks would be a lot more upset at being called a nigger than being called a negro.  The New Mexico reservoir named “W – – – – – – – Tank” we’re inferring is likely wetback.  And the “slur” for an American Indian woman probably is squaw. 

                But the point is that the government shouldn’t be wasting our money on this woke nonsense; these people are elected to govern, not be our conscience or to codify their own moral standards and imposing them on the rest of us.  Aren’t there hungry children that need feeding?  Isn’t there some sort of pandemic killing hundreds of thousands of Americans?  Aren’t there roads and bridges falling down all around us?  Aren’t the entire east and west coasts going to be underwater in 10 years?  And isn’t the entire west on fire?  These and dozens of other issues are way more important than the congenital virtue-signaling of the woke crowd, and none of us are going to be any better off if they keep up with this crap.  We should tell these clowns to get back to work or get another job.

References:        ‘Mindless.’ ‘Tragic.’ ‘Draconian.’ ‘Unfair’ — Cannabis experts slam suspension of Sha’Carri Richardson – The Boston Globe; AOC Urges Anti-Doping Agency to End Sha’Carri Richardson Suspension, Says Decision Rooted in ‘Racism’ (msn.com)

                Whether it is right or wrong that cannabis is illegal under United States federal law and a banned substance under international competition rules, that is not the point when someone is barred from competition for breaking such rules.  The most recent case in point is American track star Sha’Carri Richardson, who it seems is a pretty fabulous sprinter.  She recently qualified for the U. S. Olympics team in the 100-yard dash.  However, a short time later she was disqualified because THC showed up in her post-race drug testing.  She is black, which should tell you how this story went; had she been white, this would not have been a story.

                Cue the woke mob.  “On Friday, a chorus of physicians, athletes, and policy advocates who specialize in marijuana denounced USA Track and Field’s one-month suspension of American track star Sha’Carri Richardson, who tested positive for THC metabolites after smoking pot to cope with the recent death of her biological mother.” 

            And of course the one-note Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, urged the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to end the suspension of Ms. Richardson.  According to her, any prohibition on the use of pot is racist.  Of course it is.  How do we know?  AOC said so: 

“We worked with @RepRaskin and the Subcommittee on Civil Rights & Civil Liberties to formally ask @USAntiDoping to end Sha’Carri Richardson’s suspension,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, sharing screenshots of the letter. “Their decision lacks any scientific basis. It’s rooted solely in the systemic racism that’s long driven anti-marijuana laws.”  She also noted, as though it made any sense, that “[n]ot to mention, marijuana is legal in Oregon where Ms. Richardson was when she used it.” 

            Well, we have a hard time believing that the bodies who regulate national and international sports give a hoot what is or is not legal in one of America’s 50 states.  To Ms. Richardson’s credit, she didn’t whine about it or claim racism, but accepted responsibility and the modest suspension imposed, even though it meant no Olympics for her.  Notably, and sadly for all of us, not once in the articles cited above did anyone even suggest that Ms. Richardson bore even some personal responsibility for smoking pot against the rules and getting caught. (Actually, absent the race part, this is the same issue as the airlines now face with mask mandates and kicking off uncooperative passengers who had already agreed to wear a mask when they bought their tickets).

            While everyone can appreciate the angst of a parent’s recent demise, the fact is she knew exactly what she was doing, knew pot was banned under the rules that she understood perfectly well, and used it anyway, and she hasn’t tried to run from her own personal responsibility, even though all the loudmouths squawking in her support attempt mightily to dismiss her own responsibility by simply omitting any reference to it.  To them, as the eminent Congresswoman maintains, personal responsibility does not matter when it involves something “rooted solely in the systemic racism that’s long driven anti-marijuana laws.”

            Put another way, anyone subject to “systemic racism” is simply not responsible for his or her own actions or situations and in such cases, even though he or she knowingly violated the rules, he or she should get a mulligan, or two, or three, just because she’s black.  We respectfully suggest that the Congresswoman should take her cue not from her woke buddies, but from Ms. Richardson herself and how she has handled herself through this.  It sounds to us like the eminent Congresswoman has had a few too many tokes herself over the years and she should start to think about cutting back.  She also should find some new friends.

Reference:          Give people safe access to public waters – The Boston Globe

                This headline to a Boston Globe editorial perfectly illustrates what’s wrong with the world – people, especially the left media like the Globe, expecting the government to be all things to all people, and if something is perceived to be wrong, the government has to fix it.  Personal responsibility is out the window:

“Give people safe access to public waters – The state needs to do far more to ensure that all residents are able to swim and that they take due precaution.”

                A handful of people out of about seven million in the state happen to drown in a short period of time, and suddenly it’s some racial disparity crisis that the state has to intervene in and fix (which really means screwing it up worse, usually after spending far more than it was worth).

Get out the mandated bubble-wrap suits!

                Wait, this just in from the State House!  Governor Charlie Baker has just announced plans to provide, and mandate the wearing of, bubble-wrap suits for every individual in the Commonwealth, effective September 1, 2021.  The cost, supposedly, will be borne by a special fee on insurers, since they will largely benefit from far fewer claims, or so the idea goes.  “And they’ll help the drowning situation, for one thing,” he said in his remarks, “they’re very buoyant so people will float.  People will have to make a real effort to drown now.” 

                When asked does everyone have to wear the issued suit at all times, he said yes they did, even while sleeping.  He did note that he expected the private sector to get into the business of custommade bubble-wrap suits, so we’re likely to see them in different colors and patterns, as well as with comforts such as built-in air-conditioning and heating coils.  So you can have several for different types of occassions, dress suits, PJs, etc.  If you think this is extreme, just remember Mao suits – a little history lesson:

“The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire originally known in China as the Zhongshan suit . . . .  after the republican leader Sun Yat-sen . . . . . Sun Yat-sen introduced the style shortly after the founding of the Republic of China (1912–1949) as a form of national dress with distinct political overtones. The four pockets are said to represent the Four Virtues of propriety, justice, honesty, and shame; and the five buttons the branches of China’s government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Examination, Control).  After the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, such suits came to be worn widely by male citizens and government leaders as a symbol of proletarian unity and an Eastern counterpart to the Western business suit. The name “Mao suit” comes from Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong’s fondness for the style, so that the garment became closely associated with him and with Chinese Communism. Mao’s cut of the suit was influenced by the Stalin tunic then prevalent among Soviet officials.”  Mao suit – Wikipedia

                Better start choosing your style before the rush begins.