Government is an overhead expense, a drag on production, so of course we'd all like to minimize it.
Just as in a business, inventory is always a cost, it would be best to eliminate it completely; however, without an inventory there wouldn't be a business (not counting the goal of "just in time" production). Like inventory, we'd like to minimize government -- but like all overhead, it's there for a reason. Others before us have tried to get rid of it, from Ike to Reagan (tripled the national budget) to Bush (ran the debt over $12 Trillion). So what is the true role of government?
Let's look at ideals, some cases where the government succeeded without question. For example, seat belts. Left to their own devices, auto makers would have continued to offer seat belts as an option-only; some improvident people who think they will never have a crash would scrimp on seat belts. With less economies of scale, the cost would be higher. Why should we care? Those without seat belts would be injured more, and denied the protection they would have if they had made the "right" choice.
In steps the "fair broker", the government. By requiring that ALL recalcitrant auto makers offer seat belts as standard, it lowered the price, made it fair and lowered accident rates for all, ending the argument. Enabling air bags, because you can't have air bags without seat belts.
Take another: Social Security vs. individual investment. Given the bell curve, some people would do better than SS (forgetting for a moment that SS is also an insurance program); good on them. Some would do the same. But some, lamentably, just as surely as you lose at Vegas, would do much worse. They would buy Citi at $50, would have gotten caught in Madoff's madness, or bought bad mutual funds. To eliminate this, in steps the "fair broker" requiring at least the minimum retirement be quaranteed. Maybe you can do better, but at least you'll have this, is the idea. No dog food for improvident seniors, at least not those covered by SS.
And again, discrimination. Suppose everyone were free to exclude minorities or others (women, catholics, etc.); most businesses would remain open to all, but we'd see a proliferation of "WHITES ONLY", "NO MEXICANS" and "NO JEWS ALLOWED" signs, with even more aggressive "ARYANS ONLY" or "NAZI TATTOOS REQUIRED". This would certainly wet Rand Paul's undies, but would be in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment -- plus violating our sense of fairness.
Perhaps government should not be involved in health care -- but why not? Analogously to seat belts, the current system doesn't work. You can close your eyes and ignore the current ignoble system and its outrageous injustice. But just one incident tells the story of failre. A 22-hour stay in UCI Medical Center led them to reams of paper bills for over $60,000.
A prudent, careful person would have had to pay that inflated bill, which was expanded by what is euphemistically called "cost shifting" from those who can pay to those who can't. If you have insurance, this outrage gets bargained down to the other rate, perhaps $5,000.
Yes, hospitals, insurers, medical companies and doctors use TWO SETS OF BOOKS, one for the in-crowd and the other for unlucky prudent citizens who always pay their bills themselves and don't have insurance. Drug companies, too, have two rates: one for blue cross, and a higher rate for small pharmacies.
The question is not getting rid of government, it's using it as a tool to make the sort of place we want to live in.
As "fair broker", removing the injustice and waste in the current health care mess, government has an important role to play. Only the government can force medical providers to stop their illegal "two sets of books" and wasteful cost-shifting from indigent care in the emergency room to those who have insurance or who pay cash.
Duly efficient health care rendered in a non-emergency, prophylactic role is always going to be cheaper, more humane, and more efficient than last-minute triage due to lack of proper care.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
What Obama should have said...
Obama did issue a rousing and strong defense of his performance, and did offer money for electric trains. But the rest...is just imagination.
----------------WHAT THE PRESIDENT MIGHT HAVE SAID...
Friends,
It's a difficult time. We've got two wars going that we can't afford to pay for.
Our economy is on the fritz, to be plain, due to many years of unregulated excess.
What we've got to do, and do urgently, is:
1. CREATE JOBS. We're going to stop exporting jobs. We must stop encouraging and rewarding companies for outsourcing jobs, which is destroying our good manufacturing job base here.
We're going to go back to the ideas of Tom Jefferson, and levy a protective tariff on manufactured goods that are imported using slave or misery labor.
Our unemployed are only half the problem; without a stepping stone to a future, our people's talents lie fallow, under-utilized and feeling despised and worthless.
We're going to rebuild our manufacturing base in this country, and restore good jobs, jobs with a future, while dismantling destructive enterprises that feed off foreign misery and import that misery to our unemployed and hopelessly under-employed.
2. ENERGY. An end to dirty coal. We'll for the first time in this administration forbid new coal mines, and force the sunset of existing mines.
We'll resume enforcement of the Clean Water Act that outlawed so-called mountaintop removal and streambed filling with the dirt and toxic debris of coal mining. The antics of coal companies are leaving our next generations a lasting legacy of ugly land and future payments for cleanup that they can't meet.
SOLAR. So far, we've not done a thing for solar power in my Administration; even the solar tax credit came from my predecessor.
The Rooftops of America are already developed; the tragedy is that instead of covering these roofs with solar panels, we covered them with inert rooftops. Our plan now is to have every roof be solar, and build up a great solar industry that will generate such plentiful power that we can stop charging for it, and dismantle our last few nuke power plants.
ELECTRIC TRANSIT. We'll use the power for plug-in cars. We'll force auto makers to Produce and support a great battery industry.
END TO BIG OIL. We'll break up Standard Oil all over again; Chevron, Exxon and the three other major oil companies must be broken into hundreds of new firms, and we need an oil extraction tax that dwarfs current taxes. We need to penalize self-destructive things like oil imports and cheap wal-crap.
3. EDUCATION. We're going to require a return to teaching the "3 Rs". Exotic ideas about teaching kids have failed; in truth, kids learn more from the internet, their peers and movies than they do in our obsolete school environment.
JOBS FOR KIDS. We are going to bring a new dignity to non-intellectual labor: kids are going to be able to learn how to do jobs that really count, build things, make things, and use their hands, as a well-paid and highly-regarded alternative to formal college learning.
4. TAXES. No longer can we tolerate the runaway tax cheats, who have bribed their way to tax exemption. No longer can we afford the disparity in income, where the well-to-do can't figure out where to spend their money, and the honest workers can't figure out where their next dime is coming from.
We're going to tax so-called "non-national" or "multi-national" corporations, excessive bonuses, banks, tax cheats, the very wealthy, and offshore scams..."
and so on.
Why is it so difficult to simply tell the truth??
----------------WHAT THE PRESIDENT MIGHT HAVE SAID...
Friends,
It's a difficult time. We've got two wars going that we can't afford to pay for.
Our economy is on the fritz, to be plain, due to many years of unregulated excess.
What we've got to do, and do urgently, is:
1. CREATE JOBS. We're going to stop exporting jobs. We must stop encouraging and rewarding companies for outsourcing jobs, which is destroying our good manufacturing job base here.
We're going to go back to the ideas of Tom Jefferson, and levy a protective tariff on manufactured goods that are imported using slave or misery labor.
Our unemployed are only half the problem; without a stepping stone to a future, our people's talents lie fallow, under-utilized and feeling despised and worthless.
We're going to rebuild our manufacturing base in this country, and restore good jobs, jobs with a future, while dismantling destructive enterprises that feed off foreign misery and import that misery to our unemployed and hopelessly under-employed.
2. ENERGY. An end to dirty coal. We'll for the first time in this administration forbid new coal mines, and force the sunset of existing mines.
We'll resume enforcement of the Clean Water Act that outlawed so-called mountaintop removal and streambed filling with the dirt and toxic debris of coal mining. The antics of coal companies are leaving our next generations a lasting legacy of ugly land and future payments for cleanup that they can't meet.
SOLAR. So far, we've not done a thing for solar power in my Administration; even the solar tax credit came from my predecessor.
The Rooftops of America are already developed; the tragedy is that instead of covering these roofs with solar panels, we covered them with inert rooftops. Our plan now is to have every roof be solar, and build up a great solar industry that will generate such plentiful power that we can stop charging for it, and dismantle our last few nuke power plants.
ELECTRIC TRANSIT. We'll use the power for plug-in cars. We'll force auto makers to Produce and support a great battery industry.
END TO BIG OIL. We'll break up Standard Oil all over again; Chevron, Exxon and the three other major oil companies must be broken into hundreds of new firms, and we need an oil extraction tax that dwarfs current taxes. We need to penalize self-destructive things like oil imports and cheap wal-crap.
3. EDUCATION. We're going to require a return to teaching the "3 Rs". Exotic ideas about teaching kids have failed; in truth, kids learn more from the internet, their peers and movies than they do in our obsolete school environment.
JOBS FOR KIDS. We are going to bring a new dignity to non-intellectual labor: kids are going to be able to learn how to do jobs that really count, build things, make things, and use their hands, as a well-paid and highly-regarded alternative to formal college learning.
4. TAXES. No longer can we tolerate the runaway tax cheats, who have bribed their way to tax exemption. No longer can we afford the disparity in income, where the well-to-do can't figure out where to spend their money, and the honest workers can't figure out where their next dime is coming from.
We're going to tax so-called "non-national" or "multi-national" corporations, excessive bonuses, banks, tax cheats, the very wealthy, and offshore scams..."
and so on.
Why is it so difficult to simply tell the truth??
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
San Diego's failure to treat sewage costs everyone else
Poseidon is proposing to desalinate seawater, producing a veritable flood of, they say, cheap water. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) was called upon to root for this scheme by promising subsidies of $250 per Acre-Foot of water (one acre one foot deep in water is an Acre-Foot, or AF). Normally, in California, we pay $30 to $220 per AF; in places that failed to provide enough water for their development, like San Diego, as high as $580/AF.
The connection between Poseidon's desalting scheme (notice I didn't say scam) and the sewage waiver is that since San Diego need not recycle its sewage water, its bribed pols and others have a better argument for borrowing loads of money ($535 million in tax-free bonds) and spending it on a desalting plant that is completely DOA.
"Public subsidies approved for San Diego..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-desalination11-2009nov11,0,1148730.story
I think the MWD Commissioners know it's a scam; they sort of talked about it tongue-in-cheek in private conversations with me. But that's business; not all enterprises have to produce a salable product to reap huge piles of money for the in-crowd. After all, look at Enron, GM, and AIG. They all know of Poseidon's sorry record (its only desal plant, in Tampa Bay, was marred by controversy, bankruptcy and public takeover); there are no positive things you can say about Poseidon, the MWD Commissioners only say that Tampa Bay "doesn't matter".
Meaning, the Board members running MWD don't care if it's a scam, it's not their money. And since they are not elected or even publicly visible, there's no downside to running with this otherwise laughable idea.
The funding will be via Private Activity bonds most likely carrying "junk" rating, meaning a consortium of banks will guarantee it via Letters of Credit (according to the State office which oversees this sort of thing -- bond insurance is dead, so they have to use LOC).
So not only will all MWD Ratepayers support this boondoggle, but so will the FDIC, which will make good the losses when the bonds inevitably default.
There is a disanalogy between the Israeli plant, the only major desalting plant using RO, and California: the Israelis, who already recycle 70% of their wastewater and use a much higher percentage of available water for domestic use (25% domestic, according to an article by Mark Gold, vs. 10% domestic in California), don't have a choice: they have to pay $3000 per AF, more if necessary. They get by with 50 gallons per day per person; according to one report, the Palestinians, who depend on the Israelis for water, eke by on only 17 gallons per day per person.
The more reliable "flash" technology is not available to Israel because they don't have enough energy (using imported coal for electric generation), unlike oil-producing countries that can spend 60 mwh of "free" energy for each AF.
So, looking at the numbers, there's no way that our situation makes RO desalination economically viable. It's a "story" kind of thing, like the "miracle battery", "lithium mining", "dietless weight-loss" or "Ballard fuel cells" that hit the stock market from time to time and make a lot of money for the "pump and dump" crowd.
Obviously, it's a self-stultifying idea to produce water here for $3000/AF; unless it's mixed with cheaper water, and the cost hidden and spread over the rest of us, no one will buy that water. It's not viable even with the MWD subsidy of $250/AF. So MWD approval was needed solely for selling the bonds, since it's unlikely they will be called on to spend much of that subsidy, LOL.
San Diego uses over 150 gallons per day per person of potable water for domestic use alone, mostly for watering lawns (to keep a lawn green costs almost 1 gallon of water per square foot -- about 10 gallons per square meter) PER WEEK.
Per year, that's almost 6 AF of water per acre, a stack of water 6 ft. high on each green lawn. That's almost 4000 AF per square mile of lawn per year, in gallons too high a number to comprehend (1.1 billion gallons). Understand that for each 1 million homes having .01 acre lawn there's a total of 10,000 acres of lawn, or more than 16 square miles of lawn taking...lots of water.
And what's a lawn good for, anyway? If you've got one 20 square meter lawn in your neighborhood, why do you need another one, too? Mostly, it's for appearance, for golf curses, and for dogs to pee on.
Potable water, also, is wasted on producing gasoline: at least 20 gallons per barrel of oil, or about a half-gallon of water for each gallon of oil (some estimates are four times as high; the toxic refinery effluent is dumped into rivers and Ocean).
Conservation could and will easily produce more water, via avoided use, at a lower avoided cost, than wild-assed desalting schemes; the Ocean Desalination plans are simply a way to raise money and produce a shower of revenue for those in the right place on this gig. In Carlsbad itself, water bills are going up 10%, according to the city, to $80/month; you can see many canny Citizens tearing up lawns and putting in Xeriscape, saving 200 gallons of water per week for the average 20 square meter lawn.
So, as usual, the leaders are behind on this issue; the people are smarter than their elected crooks.
Imagine how different it would be if San Diego were forced to introduce sewage treatment for its 180 million gallons per day; if it duplicated the Israeli situation, recycling 70%, that would be over 100 million gallons of water per day freed up at a minimal cost per AF.
More significantly, if San Diego introduced biological treatment, it would have to regulate dumping of industrial chemicals into the sewage system, which was the big cost for L.A. and O.C., and a necessary precursor to sewage water recycling and even sewage treatment.
The connection between Poseidon's desalting scheme (notice I didn't say scam) and the sewage waiver is that since San Diego need not recycle its sewage water, its bribed pols and others have a better argument for borrowing loads of money ($535 million in tax-free bonds) and spending it on a desalting plant that is completely DOA.
"Public subsidies approved for San Diego..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-desalination11-2009nov11,0,1148730.story
I think the MWD Commissioners know it's a scam; they sort of talked about it tongue-in-cheek in private conversations with me. But that's business; not all enterprises have to produce a salable product to reap huge piles of money for the in-crowd. After all, look at Enron, GM, and AIG. They all know of Poseidon's sorry record (its only desal plant, in Tampa Bay, was marred by controversy, bankruptcy and public takeover); there are no positive things you can say about Poseidon, the MWD Commissioners only say that Tampa Bay "doesn't matter".
Meaning, the Board members running MWD don't care if it's a scam, it's not their money. And since they are not elected or even publicly visible, there's no downside to running with this otherwise laughable idea.
The funding will be via Private Activity bonds most likely carrying "junk" rating, meaning a consortium of banks will guarantee it via Letters of Credit (according to the State office which oversees this sort of thing -- bond insurance is dead, so they have to use LOC).
So not only will all MWD Ratepayers support this boondoggle, but so will the FDIC, which will make good the losses when the bonds inevitably default.
There is a disanalogy between the Israeli plant, the only major desalting plant using RO, and California: the Israelis, who already recycle 70% of their wastewater and use a much higher percentage of available water for domestic use (25% domestic, according to an article by Mark Gold, vs. 10% domestic in California), don't have a choice: they have to pay $3000 per AF, more if necessary. They get by with 50 gallons per day per person; according to one report, the Palestinians, who depend on the Israelis for water, eke by on only 17 gallons per day per person.
The more reliable "flash" technology is not available to Israel because they don't have enough energy (using imported coal for electric generation), unlike oil-producing countries that can spend 60 mwh of "free" energy for each AF.
So, looking at the numbers, there's no way that our situation makes RO desalination economically viable. It's a "story" kind of thing, like the "miracle battery", "lithium mining", "dietless weight-loss" or "Ballard fuel cells" that hit the stock market from time to time and make a lot of money for the "pump and dump" crowd.
Obviously, it's a self-stultifying idea to produce water here for $3000/AF; unless it's mixed with cheaper water, and the cost hidden and spread over the rest of us, no one will buy that water. It's not viable even with the MWD subsidy of $250/AF. So MWD approval was needed solely for selling the bonds, since it's unlikely they will be called on to spend much of that subsidy, LOL.
San Diego uses over 150 gallons per day per person of potable water for domestic use alone, mostly for watering lawns (to keep a lawn green costs almost 1 gallon of water per square foot -- about 10 gallons per square meter) PER WEEK.
Per year, that's almost 6 AF of water per acre, a stack of water 6 ft. high on each green lawn. That's almost 4000 AF per square mile of lawn per year, in gallons too high a number to comprehend (1.1 billion gallons). Understand that for each 1 million homes having .01 acre lawn there's a total of 10,000 acres of lawn, or more than 16 square miles of lawn taking...lots of water.
And what's a lawn good for, anyway? If you've got one 20 square meter lawn in your neighborhood, why do you need another one, too? Mostly, it's for appearance, for golf curses, and for dogs to pee on.
Potable water, also, is wasted on producing gasoline: at least 20 gallons per barrel of oil, or about a half-gallon of water for each gallon of oil (some estimates are four times as high; the toxic refinery effluent is dumped into rivers and Ocean).
Conservation could and will easily produce more water, via avoided use, at a lower avoided cost, than wild-assed desalting schemes; the Ocean Desalination plans are simply a way to raise money and produce a shower of revenue for those in the right place on this gig. In Carlsbad itself, water bills are going up 10%, according to the city, to $80/month; you can see many canny Citizens tearing up lawns and putting in Xeriscape, saving 200 gallons of water per week for the average 20 square meter lawn.
So, as usual, the leaders are behind on this issue; the people are smarter than their elected crooks.
Imagine how different it would be if San Diego were forced to introduce sewage treatment for its 180 million gallons per day; if it duplicated the Israeli situation, recycling 70%, that would be over 100 million gallons of water per day freed up at a minimal cost per AF.
More significantly, if San Diego introduced biological treatment, it would have to regulate dumping of industrial chemicals into the sewage system, which was the big cost for L.A. and O.C., and a necessary precursor to sewage water recycling and even sewage treatment.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Jail Rush Limpburger
Just kidding. Jailing that sleaze would mean we'd have to support his drug habit.
But if I were Obama, federal marshals would arrest anyone carrying a gun to a rally, and anyone paid by the right-wing to disrupt it; put them in cages, like at Guantanamo, and interview them on live TV, put them on Youtube.
Dispassionate interviewer: "Sir, you carried an M-16 assault rifle to a political speech. Can you explain why?" Bubba: "I'll carry it any damn place I please. The second amendment gives me that right".
D.i.: "And can you explain what you were going to do with it"?
Bubba: "Hell, it warn't even loaded, at least I thunk so...before it went off"
HEALTH CARE seems not an urgent problem for those who already have it.
Our insanely crazy system of health care is definitely not seen as a problem by insurance companies and corporate hospitals, who arrogantly raise rates 10% per year and waste loads of money on "DUMB-CARE" like treating preventable problems in the emergency room, and failing to do preventive medicine (but then cost-shifting onto the public the much higher cost of paying for treating the results!).
President Obama has made an important start toward kicking Big Drug and Corporate Hospital out of our wallets.
But he can't do it without support. Even though money alone is not enough, a well-funded campaign means that people pay attention; and if you join up with the president's website, you will become part of the "virtual army" of supporters who are trying to deal with this problem, and trying to cut through the hypocritical liars (Just today was uncovered another right-wing Republican liar, who, while espousing "family values", thinks nothing of bedding lobbyists for the very special interests that are looting our country and our state).
Please join up with the president's website.
On Aug. 13, I was at a move-on event on the boardwalk in Santa Monica; despite good displays, visible signs, two EVs parked next to the sand, speakers, sandcastle "coal plants", the crowd numbered less than 50 for this "giant rally". The "choir" was there, but the "congregation" didn't care! Thousands walked by, ignoring it, walking around the EVs and displays; untold thousands of others spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours on a completely stupid spectacle in the desert, hundreds of miles from anywhere that counts. Sure, they may be renewed, by all the drugs and naked dancing; but they don't care much about health care or clean energy. But if no one cares about oil refineries, oil pollution, oil wars, dirty coal, there isn't much hope for lesser problems.
The "burning man" idiocy reminds me of the corporate Harley riders, who own a $35,000 Harley and go to Sturgis: but they get the bike shipped to a nearby city, because although they like to ride in like tough outlaw bikers, they don't really want to get their butt sore, it would spoil the swagger as they posture with the other flakes.
To quote an old Sextus Empiricus scholar and teacher, it's not the malefactors who create the worst of the evil; it's INDIFFERENCE, the masses who turn their back on the issues, who enable the evildoers, who think it's someone else's turn to care. It was indifference that sealed the fate of the Democrats, Socialists, Communists, intellectuals, clerics and Liberals who were jailed by Hitler in 1933 (yes, the Jews and Gypsies were latecomers, the political foes were locked up for 10 years longer, and no one cared or even knew, hundreds of thousands of them, and most "disappeared" like pesky Zeks).
JOIN UP with the president! We finally have a guy who is trying to do something, don't let it go.
Health care is just one of the big problems that are destroying America; Big Oil, Big Coal, the Lobbyists who are perverting and paralyzing our political system (YES, we should IMO be riding them out of town on a rail, tar and feather them, not allow them to continue!), Big Corporations with unregulated power, Multi-nationals that are stealing our good jobs, bogus "Educational Theorists" who mucked up our schools to reap BILLIONS for idiotic "lesson plans" that don't work and then get hired at $200/hour to fix the problem that they created, and on and on. That would be extreme, to run the thieves, lobbyist crooks, paid counter-protesters and tea-party fakers out of town on a rail. But it has a certain appeal.
However, the president is only asking for your support,
a gentle plea for cash and your virtual approval:
https://donate.barackobama.com/DonateHC
But if I were Obama, federal marshals would arrest anyone carrying a gun to a rally, and anyone paid by the right-wing to disrupt it; put them in cages, like at Guantanamo, and interview them on live TV, put them on Youtube.
Dispassionate interviewer: "Sir, you carried an M-16 assault rifle to a political speech. Can you explain why?" Bubba: "I'll carry it any damn place I please. The second amendment gives me that right".
D.i.: "And can you explain what you were going to do with it"?
Bubba: "Hell, it warn't even loaded, at least I thunk so...before it went off"
HEALTH CARE seems not an urgent problem for those who already have it.
Our insanely crazy system of health care is definitely not seen as a problem by insurance companies and corporate hospitals, who arrogantly raise rates 10% per year and waste loads of money on "DUMB-CARE" like treating preventable problems in the emergency room, and failing to do preventive medicine (but then cost-shifting onto the public the much higher cost of paying for treating the results!).
President Obama has made an important start toward kicking Big Drug and Corporate Hospital out of our wallets.
But he can't do it without support. Even though money alone is not enough, a well-funded campaign means that people pay attention; and if you join up with the president's website, you will become part of the "virtual army" of supporters who are trying to deal with this problem, and trying to cut through the hypocritical liars (Just today was uncovered another right-wing Republican liar, who, while espousing "family values", thinks nothing of bedding lobbyists for the very special interests that are looting our country and our state).
Please join up with the president's website.
On Aug. 13, I was at a move-on event on the boardwalk in Santa Monica; despite good displays, visible signs, two EVs parked next to the sand, speakers, sandcastle "coal plants", the crowd numbered less than 50 for this "giant rally". The "choir" was there, but the "congregation" didn't care! Thousands walked by, ignoring it, walking around the EVs and displays; untold thousands of others spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours on a completely stupid spectacle in the desert, hundreds of miles from anywhere that counts. Sure, they may be renewed, by all the drugs and naked dancing; but they don't care much about health care or clean energy. But if no one cares about oil refineries, oil pollution, oil wars, dirty coal, there isn't much hope for lesser problems.
The "burning man" idiocy reminds me of the corporate Harley riders, who own a $35,000 Harley and go to Sturgis: but they get the bike shipped to a nearby city, because although they like to ride in like tough outlaw bikers, they don't really want to get their butt sore, it would spoil the swagger as they posture with the other flakes.
To quote an old Sextus Empiricus scholar and teacher, it's not the malefactors who create the worst of the evil; it's INDIFFERENCE, the masses who turn their back on the issues, who enable the evildoers, who think it's someone else's turn to care. It was indifference that sealed the fate of the Democrats, Socialists, Communists, intellectuals, clerics and Liberals who were jailed by Hitler in 1933 (yes, the Jews and Gypsies were latecomers, the political foes were locked up for 10 years longer, and no one cared or even knew, hundreds of thousands of them, and most "disappeared" like pesky Zeks).
JOIN UP with the president! We finally have a guy who is trying to do something, don't let it go.
Health care is just one of the big problems that are destroying America; Big Oil, Big Coal, the Lobbyists who are perverting and paralyzing our political system (YES, we should IMO be riding them out of town on a rail, tar and feather them, not allow them to continue!), Big Corporations with unregulated power, Multi-nationals that are stealing our good jobs, bogus "Educational Theorists" who mucked up our schools to reap BILLIONS for idiotic "lesson plans" that don't work and then get hired at $200/hour to fix the problem that they created, and on and on. That would be extreme, to run the thieves, lobbyist crooks, paid counter-protesters and tea-party fakers out of town on a rail. But it has a certain appeal.
However, the president is only asking for your support,
a gentle plea for cash and your virtual approval:
https://donate.barackobama.com/DonateHC
Saturday, August 22, 2009
General Motors VOLT is a HOAX.
Auto makers reluctantly and supposedly agree that plug-in Electric cars (EVs) are needed to lower oil dependence and reduce climate change.
The big problem, they claim, is the battery: expensive and short-lasting Lithium is not yet practical for EVs.
The Toyota RAV4-EV, last sold in Nov., 2002, uses production large-format Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries, and is still running today on the same battery packs. All successful EVs with over 100 miles range and lasting longer than 100,000 miles used the cheaper, proven NiMH.
Up until this month, the NiMH patent licensing rights were controlled by Chevron's unit COBASYS, and NiMH was not allowed for plug-in cars. Chevron has sold control of NiMH, and now it's time to resume production of full-sized EVs, such as the RAV4-EV, EV1 and HondaEV.
There are hundreds of NiMH plug-in EVs running today, treasured by the few Americans allowed to buy them; most are powered by rooftop solar systems, not coal. Most EV drivers use the money saved from NOT buying gas to pay for their own solar system, making the solarization of America self-financing.
The only loser is Big Oil.
It auto companies were serious, they would release proven NiMH EVs. All the metals in the batteries can be recycled after they wear out, perhaps after 200,000 miles. Nickel is non-toxic, relatively abundant, mostly used in monel propeller shafts, stainless steel, and surgical instruments.
While research is fine, we need a resumption of production of for-sale EVs, such as the RAV4-EV, using proven NiMH batteries.
The VOLT is a hoax, designed to fail, using the wrong batteries. GM is killing the EV all over again, just as they released the EV1 with bad batteries. How transparent; who is GM trying to scam, with the same old battery fraud? No one believes GM, the most incredible failure in economic history -- actually arrested their own customers instead of selling to them.
Once, we drove on American electrons in American made cars: GM confiscated and crushed the cars, driving us to TOYOTA, which was happy to sell us the RAV4-EV until Chevron sued to stop production.
How did Chevron get the patent rights? Bought them from GM on Oct. 11, 2000, that's how!
So GM and Chevron (Standard Oil of California) colluded to kill the EV, by interdicting the batteries.
Now, GM is engaged in the VOLT-hoax. Same old same ol.
The big problem, they claim, is the battery: expensive and short-lasting Lithium is not yet practical for EVs.
The Toyota RAV4-EV, last sold in Nov., 2002, uses production large-format Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries, and is still running today on the same battery packs. All successful EVs with over 100 miles range and lasting longer than 100,000 miles used the cheaper, proven NiMH.
Up until this month, the NiMH patent licensing rights were controlled by Chevron's unit COBASYS, and NiMH was not allowed for plug-in cars. Chevron has sold control of NiMH, and now it's time to resume production of full-sized EVs, such as the RAV4-EV, EV1 and HondaEV.
There are hundreds of NiMH plug-in EVs running today, treasured by the few Americans allowed to buy them; most are powered by rooftop solar systems, not coal. Most EV drivers use the money saved from NOT buying gas to pay for their own solar system, making the solarization of America self-financing.
The only loser is Big Oil.
It auto companies were serious, they would release proven NiMH EVs. All the metals in the batteries can be recycled after they wear out, perhaps after 200,000 miles. Nickel is non-toxic, relatively abundant, mostly used in monel propeller shafts, stainless steel, and surgical instruments.
While research is fine, we need a resumption of production of for-sale EVs, such as the RAV4-EV, using proven NiMH batteries.
The VOLT is a hoax, designed to fail, using the wrong batteries. GM is killing the EV all over again, just as they released the EV1 with bad batteries. How transparent; who is GM trying to scam, with the same old battery fraud? No one believes GM, the most incredible failure in economic history -- actually arrested their own customers instead of selling to them.
Once, we drove on American electrons in American made cars: GM confiscated and crushed the cars, driving us to TOYOTA, which was happy to sell us the RAV4-EV until Chevron sued to stop production.
How did Chevron get the patent rights? Bought them from GM on Oct. 11, 2000, that's how!
So GM and Chevron (Standard Oil of California) colluded to kill the EV, by interdicting the batteries.
Now, GM is engaged in the VOLT-hoax. Same old same ol.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Subsidizing GM gas-guzzlers: where all the bailout went
By handing money to GM and guaranteeing the debt of their former credit arm, GMAC, the Bush administration is bankrolling and subsidizing past production of gas-guzzling vehicles of declining value.
For years, auto company lobbyists, their elected officials and regulators claimed that fuel-efficient and oil-free cars were "too expensive" to build, and would bankrupt them.
Well, they didn't build them, and went bankrupt anyway.
And now, the bailout funds are funding past "rebates" that induced poor credit risks to splurge on a big SUV instead of buying a reasonable car.
Those subsidies need never have been spent if regulators, such as the suborned California Air Resources Board, had insisted on forcing the members of the Auto Manufacturers' Alliance (AAM) to continue production of an all-electric car and/or fuel-efficient cars.
By keeping the technology alive, the AAM would have been able to expand the lineup of all-electric cars when oil prices started to rise, and would not have been caught flat-footed.
GM and Chrysler, essentially bankrupt, are paragigms of what NOT to do when running a big company!
Now today, instead of being wisely handed out to force recipients to build better cars, the federal subsidies are, instead, validating and funding their production of SUVs that make no sense.
And, of course, big salaries to the executives that, instead, deserve to be brought up on charges of cupidity...or stupidity.
For years, auto company lobbyists, their elected officials and regulators claimed that fuel-efficient and oil-free cars were "too expensive" to build, and would bankrupt them.
Well, they didn't build them, and went bankrupt anyway.
And now, the bailout funds are funding past "rebates" that induced poor credit risks to splurge on a big SUV instead of buying a reasonable car.
Those subsidies need never have been spent if regulators, such as the suborned California Air Resources Board, had insisted on forcing the members of the Auto Manufacturers' Alliance (AAM) to continue production of an all-electric car and/or fuel-efficient cars.
By keeping the technology alive, the AAM would have been able to expand the lineup of all-electric cars when oil prices started to rise, and would not have been caught flat-footed.
GM and Chrysler, essentially bankrupt, are paragigms of what NOT to do when running a big company!
Now today, instead of being wisely handed out to force recipients to build better cars, the federal subsidies are, instead, validating and funding their production of SUVs that make no sense.
And, of course, big salaries to the executives that, instead, deserve to be brought up on charges of cupidity...or stupidity.
Monday, July 28, 2008
GM VOLT shown to be a lie
If GM wanted to bring out what is essentially a 40-mile-range EV with a genset "range extender," it could have done so years ago.
It's technology that GM's Oldsmobile Division showcased in 1969, which GM exhibited in 1999 with the EV1.
If GM wanted to bring out an EV, it could have simply left the 1150 GM EV1 in the hands of what was, then, fanatically loyal GM customers. GM, by confiscating and crushing the EV1, lost that demographic.
The EV1 had 140 miles EPA range (I still have the tag) but often got as much as 160. With better Toyota batteries, such as the PEVE EV-95 batteries used in the Toyota RAV4-EV, it would have a 200 mile range.
A small genset would have made it an instant VOLT, with up to 200 miles all-electric range.
Add a genset to the 100-mile-range RAV4-EV, and it's an instant VOLT with a range GM claims can't be done.
GM is only shooting for a 40 mile range, and will likely settle for much less.
Bypassing existing successful batteries is symptomatic of GM Vice Chairman and "Guru" Bob Lutz' ignorance; he continues to misrepresent the EV1, Electric cars in general, and the batteries. Lutz personally and professionally is not the role-model for eco-awareness or even successful business practice. Lutz' business failures are legendary, his successes moot, and his personal proclivities wasteful and bizarre, including owning and flying military jets for fun.
Bottom line: GM has excluded VOLT from MPG ("cafe") standards prior to 2015, at least, because any VOLT would only be produced, if at all, in tiny quantities. This is a legal statement, made to regulators to declare GM's actual intentions.
What LUTZ blathers to his groupies and the gullible machs nicht, means nothing, will be lost in the mists of memory.
If GM were really "struggling" to meet MPG standards, why would it exclude VOLT?
The only credible reason is that it allows them to cancel the VOLT.
If VOLT were used in MPG (cafe) standards, GM would actually be forced to build it. GM would not be able to kill it.
Of course, the faithful can assume that it's just one dirty branch of GM arguing out of the other side of its mouth so that GM doesn't have to meet MPG standards. But when it comes to what GM has legally committed to, it's not the VOLT; it's that it can't produce enough of the VOLT to help it, even in tiny ways, to meet the 4.5% proposed 2011-2015 annual increases in MPG standards.
So you could, if you felt GM were worthy of your extended faith, assume that GM just didn't want to be BOUND by being FORCED to produce the VOLT, and it will produce it even if not forced.
But on what basis would your faith be extended to GM? This is the company that, just 3 years ago, arrested Alexandra and Colette for "blocking the sidewalk" while trying to purchase one of the EV1 that GM had produced and was in the process of crushing.
Even now, GM lies about the EV1, makes false statements that it knows to be false, showing that any such faith has no basis in reality. GM refuses to allow restored museum versions of the EV1 to be driven and shown to the public, even though it's at no cost to GM.
Here's a great exposition of the PROBLEM:
"...GM...has asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to lower the 4.5 percent annual increases in the CAFE standards projected between 2011 and 2015...GM stated they won't have enough Volts and Vue plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on the road by 2015 to meet the more stringent standards...a low-volume application.'.."
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/volt-birth-watch-64-nhtsa-calls-gms-bluff/comment-page-2/
And here's how they do it. The VOLT supposedly will COST GM $40,000 to produce; GM uses very wide margins, meaning that the equivalent retail price would be at least $90,000. Lutz "speculated" that the price could be $48,000:
http://wot.motortrend.com/6240642/according-to-lutz/lutz-speculates-volt-could-cost-as-much-as-48k/index.html
But even the dumb "dual mode" SUV are priced at $52,000 (and GM loses about $10K on each one).
Now who would willingly buy a 40-mile-range EV for $40,000 (assuming there's government subsidies of about $25,000 per VOLT to soak up GM's alleged excess)?
The "40-mile" all-electric range will be chiselled down to 32 or even 30 miles, and the power train will probably be altered so that the engine comes on even in the first 30 miles in the case of excessive power draw (acceleration or hill-climbing).
This makes it much less satisfying to drive, and eliminates the "oil free" part of the drive.
Moreover, the big thing, GM can retain control of the expensive Lithium batteries, so that you won't be able to take them out and replace them with, say, 12 kWh of lead-acid golf cart batteries, good for 48 miles range.
A lease or conditional-purchase agreement on the batteries would keep GM's hand on your throttle, which is how they've always stopped the Electric car in the past.
It's technology that GM's Oldsmobile Division showcased in 1969, which GM exhibited in 1999 with the EV1.
If GM wanted to bring out an EV, it could have simply left the 1150 GM EV1 in the hands of what was, then, fanatically loyal GM customers. GM, by confiscating and crushing the EV1, lost that demographic.
The EV1 had 140 miles EPA range (I still have the tag) but often got as much as 160. With better Toyota batteries, such as the PEVE EV-95 batteries used in the Toyota RAV4-EV, it would have a 200 mile range.
A small genset would have made it an instant VOLT, with up to 200 miles all-electric range.
Add a genset to the 100-mile-range RAV4-EV, and it's an instant VOLT with a range GM claims can't be done.
GM is only shooting for a 40 mile range, and will likely settle for much less.
Bypassing existing successful batteries is symptomatic of GM Vice Chairman and "Guru" Bob Lutz' ignorance; he continues to misrepresent the EV1, Electric cars in general, and the batteries. Lutz personally and professionally is not the role-model for eco-awareness or even successful business practice. Lutz' business failures are legendary, his successes moot, and his personal proclivities wasteful and bizarre, including owning and flying military jets for fun.
Bottom line: GM has excluded VOLT from MPG ("cafe") standards prior to 2015, at least, because any VOLT would only be produced, if at all, in tiny quantities. This is a legal statement, made to regulators to declare GM's actual intentions.
What LUTZ blathers to his groupies and the gullible machs nicht, means nothing, will be lost in the mists of memory.
If GM were really "struggling" to meet MPG standards, why would it exclude VOLT?
The only credible reason is that it allows them to cancel the VOLT.
If VOLT were used in MPG (cafe) standards, GM would actually be forced to build it. GM would not be able to kill it.
Of course, the faithful can assume that it's just one dirty branch of GM arguing out of the other side of its mouth so that GM doesn't have to meet MPG standards. But when it comes to what GM has legally committed to, it's not the VOLT; it's that it can't produce enough of the VOLT to help it, even in tiny ways, to meet the 4.5% proposed 2011-2015 annual increases in MPG standards.
So you could, if you felt GM were worthy of your extended faith, assume that GM just didn't want to be BOUND by being FORCED to produce the VOLT, and it will produce it even if not forced.
But on what basis would your faith be extended to GM? This is the company that, just 3 years ago, arrested Alexandra and Colette for "blocking the sidewalk" while trying to purchase one of the EV1 that GM had produced and was in the process of crushing.
Even now, GM lies about the EV1, makes false statements that it knows to be false, showing that any such faith has no basis in reality. GM refuses to allow restored museum versions of the EV1 to be driven and shown to the public, even though it's at no cost to GM.
Here's a great exposition of the PROBLEM:
"...GM...has asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to lower the 4.5 percent annual increases in the CAFE standards projected between 2011 and 2015...GM stated they won't have enough Volts and Vue plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on the road by 2015 to meet the more stringent standards...a low-volume application.'.."
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/volt-birth-watch-64-nhtsa-calls-gms-bluff/comment-page-2/
And here's how they do it. The VOLT supposedly will COST GM $40,000 to produce; GM uses very wide margins, meaning that the equivalent retail price would be at least $90,000. Lutz "speculated" that the price could be $48,000:
http://wot.motortrend.com/6240642/according-to-lutz/lutz-speculates-volt-could-cost-as-much-as-48k/index.html
But even the dumb "dual mode" SUV are priced at $52,000 (and GM loses about $10K on each one).
Now who would willingly buy a 40-mile-range EV for $40,000 (assuming there's government subsidies of about $25,000 per VOLT to soak up GM's alleged excess)?
The "40-mile" all-electric range will be chiselled down to 32 or even 30 miles, and the power train will probably be altered so that the engine comes on even in the first 30 miles in the case of excessive power draw (acceleration or hill-climbing).
This makes it much less satisfying to drive, and eliminates the "oil free" part of the drive.
Moreover, the big thing, GM can retain control of the expensive Lithium batteries, so that you won't be able to take them out and replace them with, say, 12 kWh of lead-acid golf cart batteries, good for 48 miles range.
A lease or conditional-purchase agreement on the batteries would keep GM's hand on your throttle, which is how they've always stopped the Electric car in the past.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
