HOW HOT?

It is really hot out there.  Here in Sacramento, we are used to getting 100 degree days. We always talk about how it is a dry heat. That is true by the way, I would rather deal with Sacramento at 100 then Miami at 90 because of the humidity. But hot is still, well, hot. Last summer, we drove home through Death Valley, in July. The temperature was about 119 degrees. Probably normal for Death Valley that time of year. Fortunately, our car air conditioner was working fine, so we really didn’t notice the difference until we stopped at a store, in the middle of the valley. The walk from the parking lot to the store was impressive. But it was also not as bad as I expected. Now I wouldn’t want to camp out in this, and we spent the minimum time getting to and from our car. We also started our car, remotely, so it had cooled off before we got back in. But the point is that in the modern era, with air conditioned cars and home, we can handle this.

I couldn’t help but notice that some of the records being threatened happened in 1895. Now in 1895 there was no air conditioning, so people had to rely on electric fans. But then I did some research and discovered that the Folsom Powerhouse did not go into operation until July 13, 1895, so it is unlikely that anyone even had electric fans. I sometimes wonder how people could possibly stand this type of weather. I wonder more why anyone would even try.

Today our Governor is blaming all this on climate change. We note that he did not say global warming. That is because scientists don’t use global warming because it is too easy to disprove. So, they use climate change, but they mean global warming. Every day we hear people promising to change California to develop clean energy, so we won’t rely on fossil fuels at all by 2030. How the this is going to reduce world-wide CO2 levels, when places like China are not even pretending to change remains a mystery to me. I also am not sure how they intend to do this. I have seen no evidence that solar, or wind energy will come close. In addition, a lot of people here are buying backup generators, run by natural gas, to provide power when the electrical grid fails. This is happening at the same time some geniuses are demanding that all new building are totally electric, with no natural gas. We hope that the electric grid does not fail this time. So far, SMUD, has not cut power during this kind of event.

We recently got a great offer from PG&E to connect our thermostat with their grid, in exchange for about a $75 bonus. I read the fine print, and this would allow PG&E to manipulate my thermometer to 78 degrees, to reduce energy use. This of course would happen during the hottest part of the day, when we need the air conditioning the most. Since PG&E doesn’t even supply our electricity, I ignored their offer. In addition, we have solar panels on our house, precisely so I don’t have to turn down the air conditioning on a day like today. Duh!

The point is that stupid ideas are going up faster than the temperature. With this kind of brilliant management, we could see a return to 1895, complete with extremely hot weather and the joy of dealing with this without air conditioning. We also could be dealing with it without air conditioning in our cars either because the plan is to make all cars electric, and if the electric grid goes down, so do they. Incredibly people are responding to weather patterns that have been around for centuries with plans to manage them by micromanaging everything creating a real potential for worst case scenarios, say around 2030. Nice! Few realize something that should be obvious. We have a lot of oil, and we have a lot of natural gas. We have been using these fuels safely for decades and they are abundant. Gas powers our cars very well, the air is remarkably clean, and our homes are warm in winter and cool in summer.

Solar Farms take up enormous space and no one knows the full environmental impact. We do know that there is a significant cost to transmitting power any distance. We also know that wind farms also take up a lot of space and they only work well, if the wind is blowing at exactly the right speed. If you drive by a wind farm, you soon notice that most of the windmills are not, well, windmilling. That is because windmills only work for a certain narrow range of wind speeds. If the wind is too strong, they shut down. If the wind is too weak, they don’t move. So, they use a variety of windmills so that some of them work most of the time, assuming there is some wind. Also,  assuming they aren’t in places, other than California, where they can freeze at the worst possible time. Or that some Russian Hacker hasn’t shut down the grid demanding ransom money. In other words, what could possibly go wrong, with the answer being, just about everything.

When I was growing up, we didn’t even have TV. Then we got TV, but it was black and white. Then we got color TV, but the TV sets were expensive, and the color wasn’t that good. Now TV sets are dirt cheap, and the color is amazing. Our telephone was on a party line. Several different people shared the same line. Dialing long distance was expensive and a challenge. Today almost everyone has a smart phone that is actually a computer. If you have an apple watch, you can use that as a phone. The point is that technology is great, and it has made our lives better. But we may be close to the point where the same technology that has made us free may become the technology that enslaves us. That is particularly true as the government takes more and more control of technology.

Regardless of who you wanted to win the 2020 election, the MSM and the social media networks were all in on defeating Donald Trump. If Trump is right, when this failed, they just used technology to change the results. Hopefully, there will be real investigations and we will all learn the full truth about this. We already know that the MSM and social media were united in a campaign to make Trump look bad, in every way possible. They were definitely in collusion to micromanage how each of us make decisions that personally impact us. We have been warned. If we do not recognize the danger and put in safeguards, the future may start to look a lot like 1895. Actually, it will be even worse, because the government and only the government will decide winners and losers. Not based on performance or character but rather on skin color and things like gender identity. They have already tried this, Joe Biden tried to give agricultural support only to black farmers.

Always remember that government that can give you everything you want can also take away everything you need. One thing is certain, the politicians in charge will always put themselves first with little or no regard for anyone else. The other thing that is certain is that they will make incredibly dumb decisions that negatively impact everyone else and then blame it on Donald Trump or whoever else happens to be available.

TDM