Drumpf — the beginning of the end
October 11th, 2016
Like wow… look at the change in October, from 538. Can it be? Sure hope so… just 28 days to go ’til this election, and it can’t be over soon enough.
In the STrib:
And elsewhere:
Glenn Beck: Electing Hillary Clinton ‘Is a Moral, Ethical Choice’
Trump, time to withdraw
October 8th, 2016
from Reuters
In the New York Times, Why Republicans Are Probably Stuck with Donald Trump, but I don’t agree with the headline, under the rules, he can “decline,” and should “decline” now:
… the Republican Party did not have a mechanism to replace a nominee just because it wants to. The party’s rules state that “the Republican National Committee is hereby authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise of the Republican candidate for president of the United States.”
Not that Drumpf is capable of withdrawal, but it is time. He never should have been in a position to be nominated as candidate, he never should have been nominated — this is not new information — but it is beyond time to act on what we’ve know for so long. Donald J. Trump is not fit, is not qualified, to be President of the U.S.
Thursday’s Xcel IRP meeting at PUC
October 8th, 2016
It was a long, long day. Bottom line? Based on the record, and based on acknowledgement of Xcel’s peak demand history, we can shut down Sherco 1 & 2 now without missing it, and by 2025 or so, shut down Prairie Island and not have to pay for significant rehab to keep it running.
Here is the PUC webcast:
Here is my handout, noting the 700-788MW overstatement of peak demand forecast.
If you start with Xcel’s 2015 actual peak demand, and extrapolate using the 0.3% annual increase out to 2030, here’s what it looks like (click for larger view):
These are the charts that they’re using, starting with inflated forecasts of 9,409 and 9,442MW for 2016, note how far off the resulting 2030 “forecast” is — it’s 800 – 1,234 MW off!
With the “forecast” that much off, it’s as absurd as the CapX 2020 2.49% annual increase. Staff questioned the forecasts in the Briefing Papers, Commissioner Lange raised forecasts right off the bat, and Commissioner Schuerger claimed it was at least 300 MW off (don’t know where that 300 MW came from). These discrepancies havce been noted, and they should dig deeper, because the numbers used by Xcel do not add up. Were they lying in the SEC filings or are they lying now? Why isn’t Commerce challenging this, given admissions of the existing surplus? This forecast overstatement, plus admission of under-utilization of grid (meaning grid has been overbuilt, DOH, CapX 2020 and MVP projects are not “needed” in any sense) raises a few issues:
1) This misrepresentation is NOW equivalent to at least one coal plant, and by the end of 2030, or by the time presumed for shut down of Sherco 1 and 2, it’s much more than that.
2) This misrepresentation avoids consideration of shut down of Sherco 1 & 2 NOW, and shutdown of Prairie Island at the 2024-2026 time frame, and avoidance of $600-900 million in capital costs, or more, for Prairie Island.
3) This misrepresentation circumvents discussion of the admitted surplus now existing, even Dr. Rakow admitted to that at least twice in Thursday’s discussion. Where there is surplus, they can sell it elsewhere, and that is, after all, the purpose of CapX 2020 and MVP transmission.
Got that? We can shut down Sherco 1 & 2 now without missing it, and by 2025 or so, shut down Prairie Island and not have to pay for significant rehab to keep it running. This is not rocket science. It’s as simple as using actual peak demand as a starting point and not making up numbers as they have been doing.
Donald J. Trump Foundation
October 5th, 2016
Trump Foundation’s IRS Form 990-PF (Private Foundation) shows that he gives a “little” here and a “little” there (oh, say $2-25,000), but gives $100,000 to the Citizens United Foundation. A little light reading from the Donald J. Trump Foundation as we approach election day — Clinton Foundation is next. These three are the only available on GuideStar:
2014 IRS Form 990-PF Trump Foundation
State Attorney General Orders Trump Foundation to Cease Raising Money in New York
Trump Foundation ordered to stop fundraising by N.Y. attorney general’s office
Cracks in the Donald J. Trump Foundation: Report alleges self-dealing
Trump Foundation lacks the certification required for charities th
Make America Great Again? Nostalgia for ???
October 1st, 2016
You’ve all heard it, the misplaced nostalgia for a time that never was, where life was somehow easier, none of this fussing about civil rights, those pesky things like equality, the right to vote, freedom of religion… and for too many, it’s this notion that the 1950s (the time of Boomers?) were the best of all worlds. AAACK!
And I’m noticing that so many in this mindset are lacking in basic education, so many very vocal people without any notion of logic and how to present or respond to an argument, the fundamentals of critical thinking, and history, both American history and world history. It’s driving me nuts! I’m getting ready to start sending books and lesson plans to a lot of people I know!
Where’d that Jerry Garcia for President button go?
Alan found a book at a garage sale yesterday, 7th edition so it’s nothing new, but so on point:
Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing (7th Edition)
What We Really Miss About The 1950s -_Stephanie Coontz is included, along with a lot of other classics. It’s a college text:
Designed for first-year writing and critical thinking courses, Rereading America anthologizes a diverse set of readins focused on the myths that dominate U.S. culture.
These myths are those on the front burner today:
- Harmony at Home: The Myth of the Model Family
- Learning Power: The Myth of Education and Empowerment
- Money and Success: The Myth of Individual Opportunity
- True Women and Real Men: Myths of Gender
- Created Equal: The Myth of the Melting Pot
- One Nation Under God: American Myths of Church and State
- Land of Liberty: The Myth of Freedom in a “New World Order”
The grand finale of Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing is Langston Hughes’ Let America be America Again:
Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the black man bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the black man, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The abuse and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This stanza is missing in the book:
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose— The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again, America!