California Environmentalists Will Phase Out Diesel Trucks

The plan now in the Golden State is to have all diesel trucks off the highways by 2042, just twenty short years from now. The California Air Board has already forbidden the sale of all new gasoline-powered autos and light trucks in the state by 2035. This further step will be decided at an Air Board hearing next spring. 

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The reasons for this are said to be two. First, the exhausts of internal combustion engines cause significant health problems in the general population. Second, they contribute to global warming. There may well be a connection between exhaust gases and health issues. It's not wise to sit in a car with the engine running in a closed garage. At the same time, it's unlikely that eliminating the exhaust gases of cars and trucks in California will have any effect on the global climate or even that of Arizona. 

But like King Canute ordering the waves to stop, California governor Gavin Newsom and his associates need only stipulate the answer to a perceived problem to solve it.

Presently no heavy trucks are available to satisfy the requirements of the proposed rules and no significant infrastructure exists to supply whatever form of energy they will need. 

The German Inflation Of 1923

     "The fundamental quality of the disaster was a complete loss of faith in the functioning of society. Money is important not just as a medium of economic exchange, after all, but as a standard by which society judges our work, and thus ourselves. If all money becomes worthless, then so does all government, and all society, and all standards. In the madness of 1923, a workman's work was worthless, a widow's savings were worthless, everything was worthless. 'The collapse of the currency not only meant the end of trade, bankrupt businesses, food shortages in the big cities and unemployment', according to one historian, Alan Bullock. 'It had the effect, which is the unique quality of economic catastrophe, of reaching to and touching every single member of the community in a way which no political event can. The savings of the middle classes and the working classes were wiped out at a single blow with a ruthlessness which no revolution could ever equal. . . The result of the inflation was to undermine the foundations of German society in a way in which neither war, nor the revolution of November, 1918, nor the Treaty of Versailles had ever done. The real revolution in Germany was the inflation."

 

Otto Friedrich, Before the Deluge, A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, HarperPerennial, NY 1995 pg.126-127. 

Secret Service Brings Shame To The Country Once Again

An incident that allegedly occurred in Israel early in July has resulted in legal action against a US Secret Service agent. 

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The complainant, Tamar Ben Haim, maintains that she was assaulted by one of two men that had exited a bar and confronted her on the street. After contacting police the individual was arrested, identified and later sent back to the US. The name of the agent has yet to be released and the US Department of Justice refuses to comment on the case.

This isn't the first time that members of the agency that protects the most important figures in US government and investigates counterfeit money have been accused of serious misbehavior in foreign countries. Perhaps it's too much to expect that these low lifes would represent their country with any kind of class. Worse yet is that their employer refuses to identify them publicly. Perhaps they can get away with this kind of behavior in a country that depends on US support for its very existence. It probably wouldn't be accepted in a place like Brazil or China.

It's also notable that US political figures have always made it a point to remark on the fact that totalitarian countries rely on secret police to stay in power.   

 

 

A New Special Prosecutor

The US Dept. of Justice, unbothered by a sky-rocketing domestic crime rate, suspicious national and local elections, a flood of illegal immigration and endemic financial malfeasance, has decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the actions of former president Donald Trump in the incidents that occurred in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 and at his home in August 2022.

The special prosecutor will be Jack Smith, an experienced federal prosecutor who has been a special prosecutor with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, specializing in the investigation of war crimes in Kosovo, most of which occurred in the late 1990s, over twenty years ago.

There's an interesting element to the latest entry on the C.V. of Mr. Smith. The US is not signatory to the treaties that enable the International Criminal Court, yet maintains relationships with it. The US refusal to ratify the treaties, like a number of other countries, involves problems with the US constitutionality of such treaties and protection of US military personnel from war crime investigation and punishment.

 

Brittney Griner Update

Excerpt from regular White House press briefing on Nov. 18, 2022:

 
"Q    Thanks.  Karine, Russia says it’s working with the U.S. on a potential prisoner swap.  Can you comment on where this stands?  Could this lead to the release of Brittney Griner?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah, I heard — I’ve heard these reportings.  Let me just say something at the top because there’s also been reporting about the location of Brittney Griner, so I just want to get this on the record. 

So, we’re — we’re in frequent contact with Brittney Griner — Brittney Griner’s team and are aware that they were able to visit her earlier this week at IK-2 in Mordovia. 

The administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release.  As I said when we first learned she was moved, the President has directed the administration to prevail on her — on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure.

The U.S. government is ready to resolve the wrongful detentions of American citizens in Russia.  We have made an offer, have continued to follow up on that offer, and propose alternative potential ways forward with Russia — Russians through a — through all available channels.  We hope Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith.

And you’ve heard us say this before: The Russian government’s actions have contradicted what they have said publicly.  Over the last several months, they have failed to seriously negotiate through the established channel or any other channel.  And that’s what we’re going to see.

On the prisoner — prisoner swap, your specific question, look, we’re not going to comment on specifics of any proposals, other than to say that we have made a substantial offer and that the Russian Federation has consisensly [sic] — consistently, again, failed to negotiate in good faith.  And you’ve heard us say that before.  They need to negotiate in good faith.  But I’m not going to get into specifics of the negotiations."

____________________________________

The fact of the matter is that the US is basically on both sides of the negotiations over Griner's incarceration. The Americans whom US negotiators are attempting to gain release are, with the exception of Griner, relatively unknown to the general public. The lady basketball star would be similarly anonymous if this event had never occurred. It's not to the advantage of the US to secure her freedom in exchange for the end of negative publicity for the Russians. Only a tiny minority of Americans are aware of potential Russians available for exchange in this circumstance. The media has conveniently forgotten that Siberian gun enthusiast Marina Butina went through a similar experience in the US but her detention was based first on accusations of prostitution and espionage. Later she plead guilty to being an "unregistered foreign agent". 

Sadly, Griner's immediate problems are based at least in part on the Russian reaction to Butina's experience as well as her own mistake, certainly an unnecessary and foolish one, as so many legal difficulties are.   

  

How To Solve Two Big Problems At Once

The world, and consequently the US of A, has a raft of problems right now. Two of them are the unequipped Latin army invading the American southwest and the Russian Special Operation in Ukraine. There are some things that can be done to solve both of those issues.

First of all, it's time to admit that the US, by supplying Ukraine with weapons and training, is for all practical purposes, at war with Russia. At some time in the near future troops will need to be sent into battle there.

But what troops will fulfill the role of cannon fodder for the Russian tanks, missiles and Iranian drones? 

The fact is that there is still a Selective Service Commission that exists to revive the draft if men are needed. The draft can include not only US citizens, but also residents. Which means males of a certain age group living in the US, citizens or no. All resident males in the US from age 18 to 26 are legally required to register with the Selective Service or face felony charges.

No doubt practically all the young males that have slipped across the southern border into the US have immediately registered. They are thus available for conscription, basic training and deployment. 

This would serve the purpose of creating fighting units without disturbing potential US voters and acclimate and assimilate immigrants into the greater society. Many, after serving a tour in Ukraine, might wish to return there. It's also likely that some unregistered immigrants would prefer to return to their homes rather than serve in the military and those who have yet to make the trip north might wish to reconsider that option.

It's a win-win solution, a steady supply of combat troops and a probable decrease in illegal immigration. What's not to like?

Not only that, but similar units in other countries have been formed in the past and perhaps even now. The legendary French Foreign Legion included no Frenchmen. The Roman army had units made up entirely of barbarian men. Part of the process of empire is not only establishing alliances with foreign countries but also integrating their people into the empire's forces. The Nepalese Ghurkas, stationed now at Folkestone, Kent, UK, have been a significant part of the UK military for almost 200 years but do not become citizens.

Perhaps a US unit of Guatemalans or Salvadorans could establish a similar tradition.        

Lewis Mumford Said

 “This metropolitan world, then, is a world where flesh and blood is less real than paper and ink and celluloid. It is a world where the great masses of people, unable to have direct contact with more satisfying means of living, take life vicariously, as readers, spectators, passive observers: a world where people watch shadow-heroes and heroines in order to forget their own clumsiness or coldness in love, where they behold brutal men crushing out life in a strike riot, a wrestling ring or a military assault, while they lack the nerve even to resist the petty tyranny of their immediate boss: where they hysterically cheer the flag of their political state, and in their neighborhood, their trades union, their church, fail to perform the most elementary duties of citizenship.
Living thus, year in and year out, at second hand, remote from the nature that is outside them and no less remote from the nature within, handicapped as lovers and as parents by the routine of the metropolis and by the constant specter of insecurity and death that hovers over its bold towers and shadowed streets - living thus the mass of inhabitants remain in a state bordering on the pathological. They become victims of phantasms, fears, obsessions, which bind them to ancestral patterns of behavior.”
― Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities

Will The Sea Overcome Miami?

We've heard much about climate change and how the melting of the various northern and southern ice caps will raise sea levels which will then inundate coastal cities and displace thousands of people. Then some activity must take place to arrest the progress of this disaster. Something is being done.

 

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The tallest residential structure south of New York City is under construction at 300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL, a city about 6 feet above sea level and a leading candidate for disappearance beneath the waves in the near future.

The building is the Waldorf Astoria residential tower, a combined hotel and condominium complex that will eventually rise over 1000 ft. and 100 stories above the city and Biscayne Bay. Experimental techniques have been used in the design and construction of the tower's foundation, a problem with the water-saturated limestone in that location. Since hurricanes can be expected on the Florida coast, the design incorporates details that will enable the Waldorf to withstand winds of up to 200 knots.  One of these details is a tuned mass damper in the upper part of the structure, something like a pendulum, which is meant to eliminate the swaying that would otherwise occur in exposure to hurricane-force winds.

The total cost of the project, which won't be finished until at least 2027, hasn't been revealed but the condominiums are already sold out as high as the 90th floor, those above going for a price starting at $4.3 million. There will be 205 hotel rooms and 360 condo units.

 

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Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, designer of the building.

 

The question is: if AGW is indeed a reality and, if we've passed the tipping point that will be pointed out at COP-27 in Sharm El Sheik, aren't the financiers of this project clinically insane? How about the buyers of the condos, aren't they making the mistake of their lives by purchasing a portion of a building whose lobby will require hip boots for passage in just a few years?

Models are used to project sea level rise based on warming that melts ice caps and glaciers but where are the models on wind speed? How is anyone able to predict what the change in wind speeds will be over time? Is it unreasonable to expect that climate change might produce wind speeds exceeding 200 knots, maybe as much as 300 knots, winds that no known structure can withstand?

There's also increasing concern that large buildings under construction in that area present a danger to near-by structures. According to the Wall Street Journal:    

The Waldorf Astoria residential tower, which is under construction and is poised to be South Florida’s tallest building at more than 1,000 feet, had to contract close to 25 insurers to provide liability insurance for the project, said Ryan Shear, managing partner of PMG. Mr. Zutel, who brokered the deal, said he had never seen anywhere near that number of insurers for one project.

Are these people making a sensible financial decision?

 

 

 

 

Slavoj Zizek On International Feminism

Slovenian culture critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek has written an essay that mostly describes the attempt to change gender relations in an international context.  He somehow manages to frame this phenomenon as a political right-left struggle, exemplified by the current unrest in Iran. 

But he wanders away from Iran and extensively relates the details of a semi-historical movie based on events in West Africa which seems to have little to do with the present state of affairs.

Written before the expulsion of Liz Truss, Zizek uses her and Giorgia Meloni's democratic assumption of transitory power and the lurking of Marine Le Pen in the background of French politics as related in some way to the Iranian situation.

Unlike present-day western societies, Iran is a Shiite theocracy, governed by Muslim clerics that believe that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor. As in other branches of Islam, many aspects of life are heavily regulated by religion, for instance the wearing of the hijab in public appearances by women. Since men aren't required to dress in any particular manner, some women rightfully feel they have a lesser status than men in Iranian society that is enforced by an oppressive government.

Unfortunately for them, oppressive government and the religious authorities are the same institution. This has been the case throughout history. Rulers almost always justify their actions as being the will of God or the gods.

One could make the case that many forms of religion, past and present, are not so much concerned with life after death or the existence of a supreme being but are most interested in what's going on at the present. Studies of other primates that don't seem to have the qualities of abstract thought or language show that one thing that interests them greatly is sex. In fact, this is true over much of the animal kingdom. Horses, cows, beavers, squirrels and other animals are unlikely to have any kind of religious beliefs but within their own small societies sex is heavily regulated, generally by the dominant males. It could be said that religion is meant in its most basic terms to structure the relationships of the sexes. That's why modern religions require marriage rites and have provisions in the legal systems of the societies they dominate punishing adultery, prostitution and other licentious behavior. 

As religions evolve and change over time, their definitions of proper behavior do as well. That explains the acceptance in the western Christian world of once prohibited homosexuality. Same sex marriage is no longer a sin to most.

The Shia empire in Iran will soon dissolve, just as Cromwell's Puritans no longer call the shots in the UK or North America, at least in their original form. Hiding females behind burkas will join the now extinct bustles of nineteenth century, while other aspects of Islam will remain.

Zizek should recognize that everything changes all the time and the ferment in Iran is as temporary as anything else. Right or left wing politics really don't have much to do with it. 

 

How The Germans Financed The War To End All Wars

 

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Paul Von Hindenburg

 

"Now that we have become accustomed to paying a large share of our incomes to support a permanent war economy, it seems hard to believe that wars were ever financed in other ways, but the incredible fact is that Imperial Germany's conservative finance officials never levied a single mark in extra taxes to pay the gigantic costs of World War I. The total cost had been 164 billion marks (the mark was then worth 4.20 to the dollar). Of this, 93 billion had been raised by war loans, and 29 billion by Treasury bills. The government had produced the rest simply by printing more money on the government printing presses. (The other great powers were scarcely more prudent. "Lenin is said to have declared the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch its currency," John Maynard Keynes observed, "In the latter stages of the war all the belligerent governments practiced, from necessity or incompetence, what a Bolshevist might have done from design".

 

Before the Deluge, A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, HarperPerennial, New York, NY, 1995, pg. 60.