Storing Our Toy

Having come home to NV a week ago after spending the last 6 weeks in our RV in CA, we finally got the trailer cleaned up and ready to store until we take it to WY in May. The other DrC has a photo of the rather tight storage slot I managed to back it into Friday, taking it slow and carefully. 

For a guy who was never a teamster, I'm not too bad at backing the trailer. I do prefer pull-thru campsites, however covered storage seems to never be pull-thru, too costly one supposes.

We hope to take the RV cross-country this summer to Tennessee. If we do so, it will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first cross-country RV trip, one that took us from CA to Key West, FL, Washington DC, and back. 

A young woman the other DrC mentored will graduate from a Family Nurse Practitioner program in Nashville in August and we'd like to attend the ceremony. While in TN we will probably go farther east to see friends in the Knoxville area and western NC.

Review: Wednesday

The DrsC have begun watching Wednesday, the eponymously named series on Netflix. It is fun, a sort of amalgam of Stranger Things and Harry Potter, with a bit of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children added for "flavor."

Wednesday, of course, is the Addams family's pigtailed daughter, so named because supposedly Wednesday's child is full of woe. She is played appealingly by an young Hispanic actress and accompanied by the disembodied hand, Thing. We meet her parents - Morticia and Gomez - briefly in the first episode, as they bring her to their old school, Nevermore Academy. 

The headmistress is an over-the-top Lady Gaga lookalike, and a shapeshifter, played by Gwendoline Christie, who did Brianna of Tarth in Game of Thrones. As headmistress her character could hardly be more unlike Brianna, an outstanding way to demonstrate acting versatility. A troupe of young acting talent believably fills out the various school roles: roommate, bully, prom queen, nerd, lovable doofus, etc.

If you've liked the film and two TV series mentioned above - as we did - you could like the series Wednesday. As a mentor of mine was fond of saying, "it works the same line of country."

Saturday Snark

Took me a minute or two to "see" this one.

Something for Star Wars fans.

The crisper, where veggies go to die.

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures, and its Comments section.

A Fourth Term

Mitt Romney's niece Ronna McDaniels just won a fourth term as chair of the Republican National Committee. The vote wasn't particularly close, she got 111 votes, California attorney Harmeet Dhillon got 51, and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell got 5. 

This was a win for Donald Trump who had supported McDaniels, and a loss for Ron DeSantis who supported Dhillon. Those who get to vote for the chair are the party stalwarts, people who've spent the better part of a lifetime being active in Republican Party affairs and are elected to the RNC by the party in each state.

I was inclined to agree with DeSantis that new blood at the RNC was needed, given the party's ho-hum performance at the last midterm when a red wave was predicted but materialized only in Florida. Obviously two-thirds of the apparatchik electorate thought otherwise. 

Most of us don't become party activists, don't make the party the organizing principle of our lives. The people who just reelected McDaniel have done exactly that. In their state they are Mr. or Ms. Republican.

The activists of both major parties are not particularly in tune with the grass roots for whom being a Republican or Democrat is like rooting for the local NFL team. Something done one afternoon while spending the rest of the week getting on with life.

Friday Snark

Both images courtesy of Politico's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

MBTs for Ukraine

It is reported widely that the U.S. and certain EU allies will be providing main battle tanks (MBTs) to Ukraine. Given how little use the Russians got out of their tanks, I am not certain the German Panther and U.S. Abrams tanks will make much difference. Perhaps their value may be primarily symbolic.

The otherwise admired turbine-powered Abrams is a notorious "gas hog" which gets terrible mileage and needs refueling too often. U.S. technicians don't plan to go to Ukraine to service the Abrams; training locals to fight and maintain them isn't something done in a couple of weeks. If the diesel-powered Panther follows normal German practice, it will be over-engineered but perhaps effective. 

I've been wondering why the Ukes haven't cannibalized the many abandoned Russian tanks to put together a good sized unit of working weaponry? Supposedly many were dumped because they ran out of fuel, and should be nearly ready to go, even modestly supplied with ammunition.

A Need for Clarity

Various sources are reporting that the FDA is considering a policy of annual Covid shots much like the annual influenza shots. Considering the similarities in the two viral diseases this makes a certain sense. The DrsC have gotten annual flu shots for decades, with reasonable-if-not-perfect results.

I’d like to have more clarity around the “sudden death following Covid shots” issue before we jump into duplicating this routine for Covid. Clearly some of this is coincidence, but some may be causative. 

Refusing to be open about this situation only makes us more suspicious. I don’t want to be ‘holding my breath’ every fall following a Covid shot. We need studies and some sense of risk rates following immunizations.

It’s Karma Time

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to seat pro-Trump Republicans, appointed by Minority Leader McCarthy, on the Jan. 6 committee. She replaced them with two anti-Trump Republicans - Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger - neither of whom now serves in Congress.

Now Speaker Kevin McCarthy has refused to return Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell to the House Intelligence Committee upon which they formerly served, alleging their lack of “integrity.” And it is rumored he will not return Ilhan Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for similar reasons.

Democrats never figure others will use against them ploys they originate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did the same thing to former Leader Harry Reid, over confirming judges.

Karma is a wonderful thing. Being able to skewer your opponent, using a tactic he or she invented, must be one of life’s purest pleasures. 

This is exactly why Sens. Sinema and Manchin won’t vote to drop the filibuster rule. They understand some year soon the Democrats will be a Senate minority and it will then protect their interests to have the filibuster rule in place, as it now protects Republicans.

Saturday Snark, a Day Late

All images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures, and the Comments section thereof.

Sunshine Going to Waste

The DrsC spent parts of the last two days driving across the Mojave Desert - mile after mile after mile of empty, barren land. In the deserts of the Southwest there are thousands of square miles of unattractive land that nobody uses for anything, nor are they likely to do so. 

I suspect most of this land is owned by the federal government. It being desert, the area gets nearly daily big doses of … you guessed it … sunshine. While batteries are impractical, if we could figure out an efficient way to store the power so generated for use at night and on the few cloudy days, covering significant acreage with solar panels could be useful. Some of this has already been done.

Yes, there are some hardy critters that call it home: rodents, lizards, snakes and turtles plus some few predators which feed on same. At least some of these will enjoy the shade photovoltaic panels provide. 

The DM Steps In It

The Daily Mail (U.K.) is often a source for U.S. news our media doesn’t print. But sometimes they print something that’s non-news, and here is an example. See the headline.

Ivana Trump's will revealed: Socialite left $1.1 million Miami condo and her dog Tiger to former nanny and NOTHING for Donald - while Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric get the remainder of her $34 million estate

And yes, that is awfully long for a headline. It looks more like a summary paragraph, but the DM does these long ones on occasion. 

My quibble is with the idea that an ex-wife would ever leave significant assets to an ex-husband, even if they are on non-angry terms. Maybe in the dynastic U.K.? I doubt it. 

What is wrong with a wealthy widow leaving her estate mostly to her adult children, with a nice dollop to a beloved nanny who will take care of a beloved dog? Why would she leave $$ to a wealthier ex-husband who doesn’t need it? She wouldn’t and she didn’t. It’s a non-story in my eyes, very much dog bites man.

Moving On

The other DrC has some pretty pictures at her blog, taken yesterday, showing how much the recent rains in CA have filled the reservoir where we’ve spent the last month with our RV parked nearby. We’ve had a good time, enjoyed the green and the rain neither of which we see much in arid Nevada.

If the above sounds like a valedictory, it is. Today we pull up stakes (figuratively) and head to NV. Actually, the process of leaving is more one of reconfiguring the RV for travel, disconnecting umbilicals and reconnecting the RV to the pickup truck. This sounds complicated but with practice takes maybe half an hour to accomplish. 

Today’s drive will take perhaps 5 hours, nearly half of it on two lane roads. All of tomorrow’s drive will be on Interstate 15, and that will see us to our winter home in the desert.

As Roy Rogers often said, “Happy Trails.”

About the Supremes’ Leak

It is widely reported today that the Supreme Court has released the report of their top cop, the Marshall, concerning the leak to Politico of a rough draft of the Dobbs decision that subsequently overturned Roe v. Wade. The report says the Court’s investigators were unable to determine the identity of the leaker.

This isn’t good news. The investigators as much as say it was a SCOTUS employee or justice who did the deed. The announcement means SCOTUS goes forward knowing it cannot trust its people to maintain confidentiality.

The leaker is probably still in the building, and may leak again. The report suggests whoever did the leak was extremely careful not to leave a trail. It sounds like espionage-level steps were employed to disguise the sources, I’m imagining burner phones and dead drops.

The result will likely be imposition of new, onerous security measures that will make working there less attractive than formerly. Access to documents, printers, and places where a memory stick can be plugged in will likely be controlled much more stringently than was the case before the leak. 

Does anybody want to raise the question of why those who use information they know is stolen cannot be prosecuted for abetting theft? Maybe this will cause the Justices to reconsider the issue?

Sporadic Wet Years Normal in CA

I’m wondering if someone at the Los Angeles Times has had an epiphany? After being reliably left-wing for a decade or more, I’ve suddenly seen two of their articles doing more-or-less straight reporting … way to go, people.

Also echoed outside LAT’s paywall at msn.com, this latest reports the big rain storms CA has experienced this month were … wait for it … normal CA weather. Really, they are not evidence of climate change. 

As a CA native I know this to be true from my own experience instate. Rain here is a boom and bust experience, unlike coastal OR and WA where it is a drizzle-all-winter-every-year experience. Most years in CA are largely dry, but we get a wet one periodically. This is one of those.

When rainy winters occur, we need to be prepared to capture and store a lot of the excess water for use later, in drier years. This kind of multi-year planning ahead is exactly what our political system doesn’t do very well. 

Two Models: CA and FL

Instapundit links to a Los Angeles Times article reprinted outside the LAT paywall at msn.com. Its topic is a comparison of the programs of CA Governor Newsom and FL Governor DeSantis. 

Reynolds believes the column is too favorable to Newsom. I read it and mostly disagree as I found it to be relatively balanced for a normally left-leaning outlet like LAT.

One claim the column makes with which I’d quibble is that people don’t move from a place where their politics, and hence culture, is in a decided minority. Their argument is that jobs prevent doing this. 

Actually, it turns out that employers like red state policies and tend to move operations there. When jobs move to red states it creates opportunities for like-minded people to follow the jobs. 

The article emphasizes CA and FL have a number of non-political similarities, including beaches, warm weather, theme parks, serious agriculture, and urban sprawl. That makes a comparison of the two political models more relevant as there is less non-political “stuff” confusing the choice.

The article’s thesis is that at some future point - 2024 or 2028 - Americans will be challenged to pick which model they find more appealing as the two governors square off head-to-head in the presidential race. With the caveat that much can change between now and then, I’d call that a likely outcome. 

To date, neither governor has demonstrated much crowd-stirring personal charisma. However the Biden and Bush presidencies have demonstrated there is no absolute requirement for presidential charisma or, sadly, competence.

Davos Snark

Ed Driscoll posts on Power Line a Tweet by Jack Posobiec; the text is brief and very on the nose.

I hear there are hundreds of prostitutes showing up in Davos this week.

And maybe even some sex workers, too.

I believe we can be certain there will be plenty of both.

The Poor Will Decide

The website Red State has serious text excerpts from the anti-woke position taken by Russian emigre Konstantin Kisin in an Oxford Union debate on the topic “Resolved: Has Woke Culture Gone Too Far?” as well as a link to a YouTube video of his speech. I believe the most important point Kisin made is this one.

[Climate Change will be decided] by poor people in Asia and Latin America who don’t care about saving the planet—because they’re poor.

One-hundred-and-twenty million people in China do not have enough food. That means their immune system is breaking down because they do not have enough food.

Where do you think Climate Change ranks in Xi Jinping’s list of priorities?

You’re not going to get these people to stay poor. You’re not going to get them to not want to be richer.

Kisin is correct in these statements. And the situation in India is worse than China. He adds the only possible solution is ….

To make scientific and technological breakthroughs that will create the clean energy that is not only clean, but cheap.

Let’s hope his clean, cheap energy is even possible. 

Suspicious Timing

Posting at Instapundit, Stephen Green links to some interesting speculation at Lawrence Person’s BattleSwarm Blog.

With midterms safely past, news about the classified documents (which was known in advance of the midterms) was allowed to leak out, indicating that whoever arranged Slow Joe’s greased-skid path to the White House has lost confidence in his ability not to screw things up so badly that Democrats get slaughtered in 2024. And this despite the decided unpopularity both of VP Kamala Harris and backup catspaw Pete Buttigieg. My working theory is that the same people who installed Biden will try to install Gavin Newsom in 2024.

Newsom’s agenda, on display in California, is even worse than Biden’s agenda. There is no effective opposition in CA, where state level politics are monopolized by Ds. The resulting woke policies go a long ways toward explaining the outmigration the once-Golden State currently suffers.

The CA Rainstorms

One of the news sites I visit regularly carries this story on the California rainstorms and quotes some CA official calling them “among the most deadly disasters in our history.” In the aggregate, this is probably technically correct, if also highly misleading.

I have spent the past month in CA, a week north and the rest south, have lived through all of the rain in an RV, which makes me a “reporter” of sorts onsite.  Most folks here were at most inconvenienced a bit by road closures and the unaccustomed lack of sunshine. 

Some mountain pass roads that suffer from rock slides are closed, but that happens with some frequency in wet years. Some areas that have experienced a burn off in the past couple of years may have some erosion and some damage to homes built too close to normally dry barrancas. 

The story claims the storms have “killed at least 19 people.” That sounds like a lot, until you realize that CA contains about 1 in 8 Americans which is nearly 40 million. That makes your typical Californian’s odds of storm death at roughly 1 out of 2 million. I’d guess most years that many die from falling down.

As I’ve noted here before, I grew up on the edge of Los Padres National Forest. We experienced a “forest” fire (brushfire, mostly) every 3-4 years. 

The press was forever printing that our town burned down, panicking our relatives who lived elsewhere who would call to see if we were still alive. The worst of the fires never got within several miles of our house or indeed most houses in the valley. 

Journalists then and now live by the motto “if it bleeds, it leads.” They try to make everything look worse than it is because it hypes viewership.

They mostly don’t make stuff up, they just select the worst images they can find and infer those are typical, without actually saying so. They’ll show you a real storm-damaged house or drowned car and omit showing the the dozens farther down the block which are intact. Face it, undamaged property and uninjured people are not a “story,” they’re just daily life.

Later … Steven Hayward at Power Line has a chart showing CA rainfall totals for the last 100+ years. Annual rainfall is highly variable but there is no obvious trend line.

Coming Around

A quick search of this blog shows for at least 8 years I have been nagging CA policy-makers to build more reservoirs to store more runoff in the occasional wet winter. An article at POLITICO suggests at least some of the state’s Democrat supermajority may finally be taking the idea seriously.

We need to get over the idea that we can live in this world without modifying it to make it work better for us. That’s only true if we choose to live like an Amazonian tribe, doing the hunter-gatherer shtick. It is abundantly clear their lifestyle isn’t one most of us prefer.

The area where for 50 years I lived in California’s great Central Valley formerly flooded every spring. Dams on the Sacramento, American and Feather rivers made that flooding stop, plus provided irrigation water, hydroelectric power, and recreational opportunities. It’s hard to argue they shouldn’t have been built.

Let us once again emulate the industrious beaver and build dams, build more dams, and store more water. If some rivers no longer “run free,” and they won’t, it is a trade-off we can accept.