Author: Kim du Toit

Thursday Landscape

Beauty

This is a new feature on this blog.  For some time, New Wife and I have spent many an hour enjoying C.W.’s fine website, and most especially his occasional “On The Road” posts which feature scenic landscapes of outstanding beauty.  So (prompted by NW) I’ve decided to do more or less the same, only these pics will be those that I’ve taken on my many travels around the world, one or two at a time.  Some of them were taken with an early-era digital camera (therefore low-resolution), so the quality may not be great;  but I think you may still enjoy them nevertheless.

Here’s the first:  View from the market square; Heidelberg, Germany (December 2008).

Heidelberg (from across the River Neckar, same date)

Warning Note

Politics

In this post from Stephen Green at Insty’s, we see the following:

President Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were the result of 15 years of intel work, the Pentagon said Thursday — but Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard curiously was missing from key moments before and after the raid.

The ex-Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii — an outspoken opponent of US military intervention in the Middle East — now faces the perception that she’s being shunted to the side by the commander-in-chief, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who previously held her job, taking on a larger profile.

Gabbard, 44, was missing from an intelligence briefing with Congress on Thursday, where Ratcliffe gave lawmakers classified details of the Saturday strike.

She also was excluded from a June 8 national security pow-wow at Camp David, where Trump began to shape his plans for Iran with Ratcliffe and other key leaders, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Two days after that meeting — to which administration officials told Fox News Gabbard was not invited — she released what one person close to the administration described as a “fear-mongering” video on the dangers of nuclear war, in what was seen as a swipe against a preemptive strike.

Uh huh.  And as I noted before (yes, that’s my meme wot I wrote):

My guess is that Trump and his buddies took note of her Middle East isolationist tendencies, and froze her out of Operation Midnight Hammer or whatever it was called.

Let’s see what happens from here.

And let me get ahead of this one, as well:

I don’t trust RFK Jr., for similar reasons.

I Love Florida

Illegal immigrants

I wouldn’t want to live there (#Bugs #Humidity #Hurricanes), but I just love the attitude of FLGov De Santis, talking about the proposed “Alligator Alcatraz”, a holding camp for illegal immigrants which is under construction on an abandoned airstrip right in the middle of the Everglades swamp:

“We’ve got a massive runway right behind us where any of the federal assets that want to fly these people back to their home country—they can do it one-stop shop.”

 Nothing like a little efficiency, is there?

Predictably, some assholes aren’t very happy about all this, but the hell with them.  The facility is due to start full-scale operations any day now.

When Reality Bites

Eco-Crap, Economics

It’s all very well to espouse boutique nonsense like Net Zero, except that at some point reality will come and beat you over the head.  Hence situations like this one:

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), Monday directed the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop and construct a nuclear power plant of not less than one gigawatt. The new plant was needed, Hochul said in her announcement, in order “to support a reliable and affordable electric grid, while providing the necessary zero-emission electricity to achieve a clean energy economy.” 

It was a surprising announcement for a state that closed and dismantled the Indian Point nuclear power plant only five years ago. The consideration of nuclear in the energy mix is part of a pattern seen in other blue states committed to eliminating electricity generated from fossil fuels. California has now delayed the closure of its only nuclear power plant, and Michigan is looking to restart a previously shuttered nuclear power plant. 

In all three cases, it appears that the states are coming to grips with the reality that intermittent wind and solar backed up by short-duration, expensive grid-scale batteries won’t be enough to supply the power needs of the state, especially as AI places more demands on the grid. Still clinging to the hope of a fossil fuel-free grid, these states are looking to nuclear as a more politically tenable option. 

Cue wailing and weeping from the anti-nuke brethren and watermelons in 3…2…1…

Me, I’d be quite happy if these idiots — and the people who voted them into power — broiled, froze or suffered permanent blackouts for a few years as a result of their foolishness, but perhaps I’m being too harsh.

Here We Go Again

Retailing

In another one of those “Custer Having Difficulties With The Sioux” headlines, we have this nonsense from the Truly Ignorant:

Supermarket bosses are under fire for charging higher prices in shops serving the UK’s poorer communities while customers in leafy suburbs pay less. An investigation by MPs found food can be up to 38% more expensive in smaller “local” or “express” stores, which typically serve lower-income customers, than in full-blown supermarkets owned by the same company, often in wealthier areas or accessible to customers with access to transport.

There’s so much foolishness in this article that I even hesitate to talk about it.  But what the heck, here we are so I might as well.

Actually, as I’ve said before, “zone pricing” is not only common, it’s ubiquitous.  That policy is very much driven by market forces — whether it’s a higher incidence of shoplifting, or the higher cost of doing business (compare the rental cost of a city vs. suburban store, for example) — the simple fact remains that in order to maintain profitability (e.g. sales per square foot at x% gross profit), some stores will have to charge more for the same items than others.

Ignore too the wealth envy in the article — “poor people aren’t as mobile as wealthy people, so they’re trapped into paying higher prices” — because it isn’t relevant:  organizations don’t charge more because of profit opportunity unless they’re a monopoly and can afford to do so.

Of course politicians (and journalists) are going to get involved because it’s an easy way for them to garner both publicity and popularity.  The facts of the issue aren’t important as long as they are Seen To Be Doing Something.

And of course when inner-city stores are forced to close because of government action, the Pore Folx are going to find themselves in a “food desert” that is entirely of their own and their politicians’ making — and I for one will have a simple reaction to this situation:

Stupidity should be punished and not rewarded.