East Is East and West Is West

And never the twain shall meet. That was Rudyard Kipling's comment on the differences between the culture of the West and that of the Orient. 

 reuters 

Public institutions have spent over $1 billion assuaging the emotions of hundreds of female athletes who were subjected to phony medical exams and treatments by the above Larry Nassar, then a physician at Michigan State University, now a federal prison inmate.

No employee of these institutions that heard the accusations against the perv but did nothing about them has been disciplined in any way. This includes the FBI, Michigan State Univ., USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. In the West money heals all wounds.

 gettyimages 

Park Geun-Hye, president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017 was originally sentenced to 30 years in jail and fined $16.8 million for guilt in 16 corruption charges, but has recently been pardoned by current president Moon Jae-in, to the consternation of the general populace.

There's a Chinese government agency called the    Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the investigative agency that monitors the behavior and lifestyles of party leaders. Transgressions involve more than money.  In the Orient even the big wheels suffer for crime or ineptitude.

An Asian counterpart of US FBI traitor Charles McGonigal would never be heard of again. McGonigal pleaded guilt to two unrelated charges and will spend 6 1/2 years in protective custody at some minimum security facility with cable tv.

 

Media and Climate Change

The Post and Courier, of Charleston, S.C, a dead-tree publication with an on-line presence, has reprinted an analysis of the coming Green Revolution by Ken Silverstein in Inside Sources.com. In almost every way it is a perfect example of the thinking, or lack thereof, in touting the adoption of intermittent energy.

Some quotes:

" The United States’ spirit is youthful — full of innovation and entrepreneurship...."

The US is led by a geriatric cadre of sexagenerian and older elected officials and business leaders. The administrator of NASA and a staunch advocate of intermittent energy is Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, 81 years of age.

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"... coal mines may be closing in West Virginia, but battery storage facilities are opening there. This is progress, requiring workers to enhance their job skills and the government to invest in 21st-century infrastructure."

 

mineralcorp.net

As if modern coal miners don't have the job skills needed to safely extract the hydrocarbon energy that has powered America and continues to do so.  Do you  suppose Mr. Silverstein has ever worked in a coal mine or could even succeed in passing through the hiring process? This is part and parcel of the coastal elites' disdain for the "unskilled" worker that has been driving the US economy for many decades.

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 "Enter the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed in 2022. The private sector has announced at least 210 significant new green energy and clean vehicle projects nationwide. If they come to fruition, they will create 74,181 jobs and attract $86.3 billion, according to findings by Environmental Entrepreneurs, a nonpartisan business group advocating for policies that are good for the economy and the environment."

The private sector wouldn't be involved except for the subsidies offered by Biden's inflation creation legislation. Of course the jobs created is figured down to a single digit and a million dollars. These lucrative jobs entail wages that are poison to American business, which does everything in its power to eliminate the expense of labor and direct those funds to management and stock holders.

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"  Climate change is less a partisan issue than it is a generational divide. While some older Americans yearn to return to yesteryear, younger ones are moving forward. They want long-lasting, sustainable jobs that improve their quality of life."

A return to yesteryear isn't what anyone yearns for, instead responsible people of any age are reluctant to discard proven effective technology in favor of unproven intermittent power. The educated elites that seem to favor the new renewables have no intention of laboring in the muddy fields under solar arrays or repairing offshore turbines.

Both the older and younger generations attended college so they could get employment that didn't require physical labor and unpleasant conditions. Sitting in front of a computer monitor is considered by them to be "skilled" work while operating and repairing sophisticated mining equipment is unskilled. Really?

Silverstein's laundry list of the environmental catastrophes caused by an imperceptible increase in temperatures somewhere is media fiction. He completely omits the fact that seamlessly integrating hydrocarbon power and renewables, a requirement needed to maintain reliability, will cost trillions of dollars that have yet to be printed.  

A Lady That Might Change The Direction of Germany

In the last few years Germany has had some of the biggest problems in the "developed" world. The Russian-Ukraine argument, a fixation with climate change, immigrant invasions, increasing energy problems, deteriorating industry and Covid epidemics have plagued the Krauts, like they have everyone else. Unfortunately, their responses to these issues haven't improved the situation. The citizenry has a low opinion of their elected officials who have been abject failures.

The US media empire can't sell advertising if they produce stories about non-English speaking minor league officials. So they don't. This means that they miss some interesting and important developments. One is the opportunity for influence of 54 year old Sarha Wagenknecht.

 

theuropeanconservative

At one point Wagenknecht was an important figure in the German Communist Party. Eventually she moved to the leftist Die Linke party. But the policies of the Die Linke didn't seem to be a path to German success. She decided to form her own political party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance-Reason and Fairness or BSW. Her views strangely coincide with many of those of rightist parties like the AdF.

Her appeal is Reason and Fairness. Higher wages and better working conditions for the middle class. The on-line European Conservative says this about her:

"Once, Sahra Wagenknecht was the darling of the Left party. In her early years as a politician, she joined the communist platform and rose to become party vice-president for die Linke (the Left Party), in 2010, and parliamentary leader in 2019. Her economic policy is quite critical of capitalism, but her foreign policy, stand against COVID mandates, and rejection of Chancellor Scholtz’s support of economic sanctions put her in traditional conservative territory. She had already begun to show her colours six years ago when she called for the dissolution of Germany’s alliance with NATO and for more secure ties to Russia. She took a clear stance toward peace negotiations after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, accusing the U.S. and NATO members of inciting Russian aggression. She referred to the German sanctions that followed Russia’s invasion as a “stupid policy,” and her criticism has especially escalated since September. In an interview conducted by media site MDR Investigative on October 22nd, Wagenknecht insisted that Germany drop sanctions, and several episodes on her website feature ways German sanctions have hurt the German people.

Wagenknecht is an avowed atheist. She has no stake in human rights for any transcendental reason. Even so, the book she published in 2021, The Self-Righteous (Die Selbstgerechten), exposed the “left liberals” as derailed and offensive to working-class values and human dignity. To Wagenknecht, the “left liberals advocate a multi-cultural, multi-gender, globalist form of identity politics. Their electoral and activist base lies in those with university degrees in relatively well-paid and secure jobs, who have benefited from immigration and free trade.” Wagenknecht sees clearly the Left for what it is: dead...."

Her view seems to be that there are more than one kind of leftists. The idea that there might be space in the public sphere between bandit corporate capitalists and genuine communists is a pleasant thought. Her views also align with some unexpected European leaders. All in all, she's now a pragmatist rather than an ideologue. Her website https://www.sahra-wagenknecht.de/

 Of course in an electorate divided into opposing and unaligned minorities it's difficult to tell what effect she might have on the German future. It will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming elections.  

 

 

 

$6.3 Billion To Samsung For Texas Chip Plant

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is signing a $6.3 billion check to South Korean chaebol Samsung to finance their computer chip fabs in Texas. It's not a loan. It's a grant.

   koreatimes.co.kr 

According to Big News Network: " "To meet the expected surge in demand from U.S. customers for future products like AI chips, our fabs will be equipped for cutting-edge process technologies and help bring security to the U.S. semiconductor supply chain," said Samsung Electronics Co-CEO Kyung Kye Hyun.

OK, Samsung has demand from US customers for consumer products such as smart phones. The number of US customers for 4 nano and 2 nano chips intended for use in AI applications is very much less. It would probably be unreasonable to expect those customers and Samsung itself to finance the development of fabs for a new product line. The real question is: "How do we know, in this supposed democracy, that such a thing as commercial artificial intelligence is desirable"?

Is it the business of a small number of elected officials and unelected bureaucrats to decide that the wealth of the population should be showered on the development and production of products that practically no one can describe or define the use of?

An advantage of paying the South Korean company and others to make their products in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, etc. is to create supply lines that can't be interrupted by the Chinese. The Chinese, aren't they the same people that Janet Yellen is castigating for using unfair subsidies to produce the exports that are destroying other economies? OK, no chips from the new plants being financed by the US taxpayer will ever be used in products that will be exported, right?       

A Deadly African Heat Wave

 The always-reliable BBC once again stokes the fires of global warming with an article about the terminal effects of temperatures in West Africa. The key phrase in their essay is the generic "scientists say". Who might these scientists actually be and what are their credentials? What are their names and how did they arrive at their version of facts? 

climatechangenews.com

And how hot is hot, exactly? An increase in average temperature of how much for a given location over what period of time is indicative of climate change, which can only be determined over many years? When the thermometer hits 100F in Burkina Faso is it just a hot summer day or climate apocalypse?

The on-line Daily Skeptic contends that the entire climate anxiety phenomenon is the product of the efforts of three beyond-wealthy individuals and that those efforts are based upon RCP 8.5, a prediction scenario of the most devastating changes in global climate but that is now felt to be unlikely.   

The most common first agenda in a conversation between neighbors or strangers is the current weather condition. This is because both have an indisputable knowledge of it, being in its midst. The gist of that conversation is how hot, cold, windy or wet it might be. The fact that it's a pleasant day might come up but who cares? It's supposed to be nice. One of the comment makers might advance the opinion that "it's a hot one" and although the other doesn't feel so affected agrees, rather than starting an argument. That's what meaningless casual conversation is all about. Being agreeable.

The Heat In India

The National Disaster Management Authority of the government of India has produced a plan to mitigate the effects of the increasing level of heat in the country. Temperatures are expected to reach the heat survivability limit, whatever that is, by the year 2050.

time.com 

Urban planning will be the focus of the effort, although it would seem much of urban India has already been planned and has been in operation for some time. 

European Renewable Subsidies Inadequate

Chinese over-production of solar panels in the international push for renewable energy has had its most damaging effect on European manufacturers, according to this Reuters article. Far down the list on government subsidies, they are closing plants in Europe and working on moving them to the US, where taxpayer money levels the playing field between the Chinese and the Yankees for now. There's a lamentation over the loss of jobs, jobs being an inevitable selling point in the energy transition story, but nowhere else. All businesses concentrate on employing the smallest number of people they can.

This curious circumstance, where fighting an existential threat is subordinated to financial considerations, creates another perspective on the renewable energy business. 

 

 

 greencitysolar.net

The reality is that the fossil fuel, or actually hydrocarbon, energy business is a developed one. Oil, coal and gas producers, refiners and distributors have been around for long enough to be able to work out the kinks in an industry that is at the center of the world economy. Through its history many of them have also failed and left the scene but the survivors are now entrenched and there will be few or none new competitors. It's unlikely that an entirely new competitor to Exxon will appear in the hydrocarbon marketplace.

"Renewable" energy, on the other hand, is open to different approaches to solving the problem of CO2 release into the atmosphere and arresting climate change, which has been occurring for the many millions of years of the earth's existence. While solar panels and wind turbines are capable of supplying energy on an intermittent basis and batteries may be developed to store some of that energy, it doesn't seem possible that their exclusive use is possible for a society that depends on reliable electricity. 

The biggest problem is an economic one. Integrating solar and wind energy into the existing power grids of the developed countries will be far more expensive than just solar panels and wind turbines. Although it's no longer a big number, the cost will be in the trillions of dollars, dollars provided by taxpayers and consumers, since that is the only source.

This amount of money isn't going to be used as fuel for boilers. It is going to be the income for corporations and their investors jumping into the unfamiliar territory of changing the world's energy structure. Just as with the development of the automobile over the last 120 years, many of these inexperienced newcomers will fail and disappear. Hudsons, Edsels, Studebakers and Packards, and hundreds of other marques, no longer roam the highways. However, these products were made and marketed by private, unsubsidized  companies. Their failure was felt by the owners and employees but not in any major way by the public at large.

The unholy alliance between academic research, government and crony capitalism is the impetus for government's intrusion into the energy field and the subsidies that fuel an expensive remedy for a problem that may not exist, the solving of which may well be more of an existential threat than that supposed problem.